[3] For the landings, the Soviet 4th Ukrainian Front employed the 18th (under Colonel-General Konstantin Leselidze, with Leonid Brezhnev as Chief Political Commissar) and 56th Armies,[4] the Black Sea Fleet, and the Azov Flotilla.

Commanding the 56th Army and overall on the Soviet side was General Ivan Petrov, and Vice Admiral Lev Vladimirsky for naval operations.

The landing was characterised by ad hoc use of naval craft of all kinds and the loss of formation organisation in the face of bad weather and darkness.

Although the Red Army managed to land the 117th Guards Rifle Division's 335th Guards Rifle Regiment to reinforce the Eltigen Beachhead,[6] they were unable to push farther than 2 km (1.2 mi) inland, a situation worsened when the German forces managed to establish a naval blockade around the landings with light craft of the 3rd Minesweeper Flotilla operating out of Kerch, Kamysh Burun, and Feodosiya.

[8] In the course of the Eltigen Beachhead's collapse, some 820 Soviet troops[9] managed to break out to the north in an attempt to reach Yenikale, occupying Mount Mithridates and defeating German artillery positions there.

An unknown number of these Soviet troops were subsequently evacuated to Opasnoe village in the Yenikale Beachhead by the Azov Flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral Sergey Gorshkov.

By the 4 December, the Soviets had landed 75,000 men, 582 guns, 187 mortars, 128 tanks, 764 trucks, and over 10,000 short tons (9,100 t) of munitions and material at Yenikale.