Russia has intensified its attacks on the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa, resulting in widespread power outages and posing a threat to the region’s maritime infrastructure. Ukrainian officials say the strikes are a systematic effort by Moscow to disrupt Ukraine’s access to vital sea routes.
Odesa Under Increased Attack
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba stated that Moscow is carrying out “systematic” attacks on the Odesa region. He warned last week that the focus of the war “may have shifted towards Odesa.” President Volodymyr Zelensky said the repeated attacks are an attempt to block Ukraine’s access to maritime logistics.
Earlier in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to sever Ukraine’s access to the sea in retaliation for drone attacks on tankers belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea. The “shadow fleet” consists of hundreds of tankers used by Russia to bypass Western sanctions imposed after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On Monday evening, strikes hit port infrastructure in Odesa, damaging a civilian vessel, according to the regional governor. These attacks are the latest in a series of hundreds that have disrupted power supplies for days and caused casualties.
On Sunday night, strikes cut off electricity for 120,000 people and ignited a fire at a major port, destroying dozens of containers of flour and vegetable oil. Last week, a ballistic missile strike on the Pivdenniy port, east of Odesa, killed eight people and injured at least 30. Another attack earlier in the week killed a woman traveling in a car with her three children and temporarily severed the only bridge linking the Odesa region to Moldova.
Air Force Command Change
Zelensky indicated that a new commander of the air force for the region will be selected soon, following the dismissal of Dmytro Karpenko over the weekend.
Strategic Importance of Odesa
Odesa’s port is key to Ukraine’s economy. As the country’s third-largest city after Kyiv and Kharkiv, it has taken on strategic importance as ports in the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Mykolayiv regions are inaccessible due to Russian occupation. Despite the war, Ukraine remains one of the world’s top exporters of wheat and corn.
Since August 2023, Odesa has served as the starting point for a crucial corridor allowing grain exports, following the coastlines of Romania and Bulgaria before reaching Turkey.
Diplomatic Efforts and Peace Proposals
Zelensky has accused Russia of “sowing chaos” on the people of Odesa and stated that “everyone must see that without pressure on Russia, they have no intention of genuinely ending their aggression.” His comments came as the latest round of US-led diplomatic efforts concluded in Miami.
The US held separate meetings with Ukrainian and Russian delegations, yielding optimistic statements but no clear progress toward ending Moscow’s nearly four-year war on Ukraine. US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov worked on “aligning positions” on a 20-point draft peace plan put forward by Ukraine earlier this month. This plan is an alternative to a proposal presented by the US in November, which was viewed as favorable to Moscow.
Before Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev returned to Moscow from Florida, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that changes to the peace proposal by European and Ukrainian parties would not improve the chances of peace. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused EU countries of having a “firm aspiration” to derail potential Russia-US agreements and “in general prevent Russia-American relations getting healthier.”
Ryabkov also stated that European countries were “possessed by a maniacal” fear of a Russian attack. Russia is prepared to confirm in a legal agreement that it has no intention of attacking either the EU or NATO, Ryabkov added, echoing previous comments from Putin. Putin stated in November, “We’ve never planned to [attack Europe], but if they want to hear it from us, well, let’s do it, we’ll put it in writing.”
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