Ballistic missile strikes on Odessa’s ports have been carried out before. But never so many, in quick succession.
Deputy Prime Minister Alyaksei Kuleba said that Russia had carried out 60 such attacks in just three months, damaging or destroying almost 300 port facilities. He said 79 people were killed or injured and 22 civilian vessels were damaged.
Oleg Kiper told the BBC that Odessa’s current air defenses could not close all three ports in the Odessa region, as they cover about 80 km (50 miles): “So the main focus is on the city of Odessa, which is home to more than million people. The rest of the ports and cities remain in a difficult position.”
Other Ukrainian ports – in Zaporozhye, Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts – are no longer operational, making facilities in Odessa more important for Ukrainian exports.
He suggested that Russia is now attacking civilian vessels to damage Ukraine’s economy and scare the world about what it can do.
“They are hitting (ships in Odessa) so much that insurance companies and ship owners are refusing to enter our ports, the war zone,” Kiper said.
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported that a criminal investigation has been initiated into the death of a well-known Ukrainian journalist, who described life under occupation in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, after he was detained in Russia.
