After the capture of Kherson, the port city awaits an imminent amphibious attack, since it is a key position in the occupation of southern Ukraine
One week after the start of the “special operation” launched by President Vladimir Putin against Ukraine, the Kiev Army General Staff assured this Thursday that in the Black Sea, off the coast of the port city of Odessa, they were detected four large Russian landing craft and three speedboats armed with missiles. The military department believes that such movements are proof that the Kremlin will soon launch an attack with the aim of taking over this historic enclave, but warns that “the enemy will be warmly received”, since the city’s defense system is already prepared.
The new governor of this region, recently appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, is Maxim Marchenko, former commander of the ultra-nationalist group Aidar National Battalion. In Moscow he is considered a “Nazi”. If Odessa fell into the hands of the Russian Army, it would be easier for Putin to complete the seizure of the entire southern part of Ukraine, which would most likely lose access to the Black Sea, as has already happened with Azov. It is, therefore, a key city in the occupation of the former republic and its inhabitants know it, to the point that they have been busy in recent days placing sandbags on the beachfront in the event of an amphibious attack. .
While the military and civilians formed the barrier, an Estonian cargo ship with a Panamanian flag sank this Thursday after colliding with an underwater mine about 37 kilometers from the city. Her six crew members were rescued alive.
A little further east of Odessa, the mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolijáyev, has held talks with the invading troops after they entered the city. «I did not promise them anything, I only transferred that I am interested in the normal functioning of our city. I asked them not to shoot people. We have no troops in the city, only civilians,” said the councilman. Russian controls multiply in the city and the City Hall itself is guarded by “visitors”, in his words.
On Wednesday, there were demonstrations in Kherson “against the Russian occupation.” According to Kolijáyev, a curfew has been agreed between eight in the evening and six in the morning, the reestablishment of public transport and the activity of companies and businesses. “The military will not be provoked, the vehicles must circulate at low speed and be ready to show what they have inside at any time,” he warned. “We are still under the Ukrainian flag and, for it to remain so, we will have to comply with its conditions. The taking of Kherson is very important in the face of the invasion of the neighboring region of Odessa, since it can serve the Kremlin to accumulate a large contingent of troops and material to launch the attack later.
On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced that “Russian Armed Forces divisions took full control of the regional capital of Kherson.” Although Kolijáyev immediately denied this information, it is true that the Russian military unit controls the main facilities of the city, the river port on the Dnieper River, the railway station, the communication centers, official buildings and other important sites. . Kherson province, which borders Crimea to the south, is also under complete control of Russian forces.
new bombing
This Thursday it was learned that an observer from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe died in a bombing in Kharkiv on Tuesday. “Marina Fénina, a national member of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, died in a bombing in Kharkov on March 1 when she was going to buy provisions for her family,” the organization said in a statement released through of your website. Kharkov has been under heavy bombardment for several days.
For example, this Thursday the cathedral and three schools were hit by missiles. In the same region, in the town of Izium, there are already eight dead, two of them children, due to an air attack that hit a residential building on Wednesday night.
In Chernigov, north of Kiev, local authorities reported this Thursday about thirty civilians killed as a result of the offensive. The governor of the Chernigov region, Viacheslav Chaus, wrote on Telegram that “many residential buildings and schools were damaged and there are no military installations nearby. What there are are hospitals, schools, nurseries and tall buildings. The mayor, Vladislav Atroshenko, denounced that they are victims of “large-caliber projectiles, just like the Nazi attacks on our city in 1941.” One of them fell into a fuel tank causing a huge fire that had to be controlled by firefighters.
Mariupol, in the part of Donbass controlled by Kiev and on the shores of the Sea of Azov, remains surrounded amid a fierce fight between Russian troops and Donetsk separatist forces, but has not yet been taken. According to its mayor, Vadim Boichenko, the city is without heating, electricity and a water supply. The Ukrainian Army resists, but the bombardments are getting stronger while the number of dead and wounded grows.
On the other hand, Russia’s decision to send “humanitarian aid” to the occupied areas in special columns of trucks with medicines, blankets, food, drinking water and other supplies has raised some controversy. Eight years ago, Moscow made the same decision in relation to Donbass and Kiev denounced that what was inside some of the vehicles was not such aid but weapons and ammunition, an ingenious way of preventing convoys from transporting war material without being attacked. The first shipment arrived in the border areas of Kharkiv on Wednesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also passed a resolution condemning Russia for seizing the Ukrainian nuclear power plants at Chernobyl and Zaporizhia. According to the IAEA, the assaults “a serious and direct threat” to the security of the facilities.