between 12 and 17 battalion tactical groups. The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24 and it was initially reported that this included an amphibious landing at Odessa by elements of Russian Naval Infantry and the Black Sea Fleet. However, the report of a landing at Odessa on February 24 subsequently proved to be false. On February 24, the cruiser Moskva and the patrol ship Vasily Bykov bombarded Snake Island in the Danube Delta and captured it from its Ukrainian garrison. On February 26 it was reported that Russian forces made an amphibious assault at Mariupol utilizing half of their landing ships in the Black Sea. A second Russian amphibious group was said still to be positioned in the vicinity of Odessa. On February 28, Turkey indicated that it was closing the Dardanelles Straits to all foreign warships for the duration of the conflict. Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, argued that the move was consistent with terms of the Montreux Convention. An exception would be allowed for Russian ships returning from the Mediterranean to Black Sea bases where they were registered. As of early March the Ukrainian navy was confirmed to have lost two vessels: the frigate Hetman Sahaidachny, scuttled by its crew to avoid capture, and the patrol vessel Sloviansk, reported sunk by Russian action on March 3. On March 7 it was reported that the Russian patrol ship Vasily Bykov may have been damaged by Ukrainian shore-based multiple-launch rocket fire. However, the ship was subsequently reported as having entered Sevastopol on March 16 with no obvious damage. On March 14, the Russian source RT reported that the Russian Armed Forces had captured about a dozen Ukrainian ships in Berdyansk. The vessels reported as captured included two Gyurza-M-class artillery boats (including Akkerman), the Matka-class missile boat Pryluky, a Project 1124P (Grisha II)-class corvette (likely an already decommissioned vessel given the absence of active ships of this class in the Ukrainian navy), a Zhuk-class patrol boat, a Yevgenya-class minesweeper, the Polnocny-class landing ship Yuri Olefirenko and a Ondatra-class landing craft. On March 19, 2022, the Deputy Commander of Russian Black Sea Fleet Captain First Rank Andrey Nikolaevich Paliy was reportedly killed in action near Mariupol in Ukraine. On March 24, the Ukrainian military hit and destroyed the Russian Tapir-class landing ship Saratov at the Port of Berdiansk. Also it became known that Saratov has been salvaged and will be