A very serious enemy force would be required to execute an attempt to land on the coast of Odesa to capture the Ukrainian city. As of today, Russia has no such force but Ukraine’s Defense Forces are preparing for any developments.
This was reported to Ukrinform by the spokesman for Defense Forces South, Vladislav Voloshyn.
“As our President stated, Russia’s military and political leadership has never concealed the fact that Odesa and the entire southern part of Ukraine are within the scope of their geopolitical interest. However, according to our intelligence, in order for the enemy to conduct an operation to land on the coast somewhere near Odesa and capture the city, they would have to amass a very serious force. We are not seeing such buildup at the moment,” Voloshyn emphasized.
He went on to explain that, should the enemy seek to approach Odesa by land, they would first have to cross the Dnipro and capture cities such as Kherson and Mykolaiv, which is quite a long distance.
“You see how long the enemy is trying to capture such a small town as Chasiv Yar with pre-war population of only 30,000 people. Or take the town of Toretsk. So the capture of Odesa is just their big dream and a Russian psyop, which claims the enemy is capable of pulling this off,” the spokesman noted.
He added that Odesa suffers daily from Shahed drones and ballistic missiles, but it holds its defenses, remaining well fortified, while the Defense Forces are preparing for any developments.
“As for a landing attempt, we also understand this threat, so our coast is fortified against such landing operation with certain defense strips to this end, including defense means, firepower, engineering and fortification structures. Of course, we can’t rule this out because the enemy is quite insidious and able to launch an offensive from any direction, including from the west, where there’s a contingent of Russian troops in Transnistria. We also pay special attention to that direction,” Voloshyn assured.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, on June 11, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed to European partners during the “Ukraine – South East Europe” summit that in the event Ukraine and Moldova succumb to aggression, Russia’s appetite would only increase as Moscow is preparing for a new phase of aggression. Zelensky noted that the Kremlin was planning an offensive on Odesa in order to later break through to the borders with Moldova and Romania.
Photo: armyinform.com.ua
