TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Friday, Mar 24, 2023

Missiles slam into strategic port of Odesa in Ukraine

Missiles slam into strategic port of Odesa in Ukraine

As the war on Ukraine rages, Russia, who launched the assault on Feb. 24, claimed that it had attacked Odesa, on major port hub, and targeted infrastructure.
Missile slammed into the Ukrainian city of Odesa Sunday morning. The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storages with high-precision sea and air missiles in the Odesa region, Interfax news agency reports.

It said that the facilities were being used by Ukraine to supply its troops near the city of Mykolaiv. Ukrainian officials said that there are no known casualties from the early morning strike.

All eyes have turned to the southern port city, where explosions were heard on Sunday morning.

Odesa has been preparing for an imminent attack for weeks now, with Russian warships circling off the Black Sea coast.

Residents left, and cafes and trams emptied as streets were covered in tank traps and famous monuments surrounded by protective sandbags.

But the city had since begun to cautiously reopen, despite the air raid sirens, neighborhood patrols and fears of a Russian attack, the BBC’s Andrew Harding reported last week.

The confidence was believed to partly be the result of Russia’s stalled advance along the Black Sea coast.

But how prepared is Odesa, given Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy’s warning that Russian forces would now focus on capturing the east and south?

Some analysts believe it will be hard for Russia to take Odesa by sea without first establishing a base on land.

But meanwhile, the city’s vast catacombs — some 2,500km of underground tunnels — are being repurpsoed as air raid shelters.

In a post on his Telegram channel, Ukrainian military official Vladislav Nazarov said that so far there are no known casualties following the attack.

Nazarov added that critical infrastructure facilities were damaged but didn’t give any more details on the target.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s chief negotiator said negotiations had advanced far enough to make a meeting between presidents Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin a possibility.

Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky is now suggesting that this is not the case. “The draft agreement is not ready for submission to a meeting at the top,” Medinsky posted on his Telegram channel.

In the Ukrainian army’s daily operational update, its military officials gave details of Russian attacks in the eastern Donbas region.

“On the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, the defenders of Ukraine repulsed six enemy attacks, destroyed four tanks, six units of armored vehicles and seven units of enemy vehicles,” military officials said in a Facebook post.

The UK’s Ministry of Defense too published its morning update on the conflict.

According to its military intelligence, the UK has observed a concentration of Russian air activity on Ukraine’s south-east — which it suggests is part of a strategic refocusing by Moscow on the region.

While Russian forces may still be capable of an amphibious landing on Ukrainian territory, the UK believes this would be an increasingly risky operation given the time Ukrainian forces have now had to prepare.

Russia has shifted most of the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine — specifically the two big regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which run from outside Mariupol in the south all the way to the northern border.

This push into the area known as Donbas could signal a more prolonged conflict, said the US.

“The key is that it has been identified by the Kremlin as a Russian-speaking part of Ukraine that is more Russia than Ukraine,” said Sam Cranny-Evans of the Royal United Services Institute.

These areas may be broadly Russian-speaking, but they are no longer pro-Russian.

“Mariupol was one of the most pro-Russian cities in Ukraine and to level it is beyond my comprehension,” says defense specialist Konrad Muzyka, head of Rochan Consulting.

Russian forces have already triggered a humanitarian catastrophe in the east, reducing Mariupol to ruins, but they have failed to inflict defeat on Ukraine’s military.

Russia’s next aim will be to push south to encircle Slovyansk, a city of 125,000 people that already experienced war at close hand when it was seized by Russian-backed forces in 2014 before being recaptured.

“What is the goal of the Russian troops? They want to capture Donbas and the south of Ukraine,” President Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Saturday.

He said that Ukrainian forces too were shifting their attention eastward: “We are aware that the enemy has reserves to increase pressure in the east.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
Close
0:00
0:00
Donald Trump arrested – Twitter goes wild with doctored pictures
NYPD is setting up barricades outside Manhattan Criminal Court ahead of Trump arrest.
Credit Suisse's Scandalous History Resulted in an Obvious Collapse - It's time for regulators who fail to do their job to be held accountable and serve as an example by being behind bars.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman tours potential migrant housing in Rwanda as asylum deal remains mired in legal challenges
Paris Rioting vs Macron anti democratic law
'Sexual Fantasy' Assignment At US School Outrages Parents
Credit Suisse to borrow $54 billion from Swiss central bank
Russian Hackers Preparing New Cyber Assault Against Ukraine
Jeremy Hunt insists his Budget will get young parents and over-50s back into work
If this was in Tehran, Moscow or Hong Kong
TRUMP: "Standing before you today, I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent World War III."
Mexican President Claims Mexico is Safer than the U.S.
A brief banking situation report
Lady bites police officer and gets instantly reaction
We are witnessing widespread bank fails and the president just gave a 5 min speech then walked off camera.
Donald Trump's asked by Tucker Carlson question on if the U.S. should support regime change in Russia?.
Silicon Valley Bank exec was Lehman Brothers CFO
In a potential last-ditch effort, HSBC is considering a rescue deal to save Silicon Valley Bank UK from insolvency
BBC Director General, Tim Davie, has apologized, but not resigned, yet, following the disruption of sports programmes over the weekend
Elon Musk Is Planning To Build A Town In Texas For His Employees
The Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse effect is spreading around the world, affecting startup companies across the globe
City officials in Berlin announced on Thursday that all swimmers at public pools will soon be allowed to swim topless
Fitness scam
Market Chaos as USDC Loses Peg to USD after $3.3 Billion Reserves Held by Silicon Valley Bank Closed.
Senator Tom Cotton: If the Mexican Government Won’t Stop Cartels from Killing Americans, Then U.S. Government Should
Banking regulators close SVB, the largest bank failure since the financial crisis
The unelected UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an immigrant himself, defends new controversial crackdown on illegal migration
Man’s penis amputated by mistake after he’s wrongly diagnosed with a tumour
In a major snub to Downing Street's Silicon Valley dreams, UK chip giant Arm has dealt a serious blow to the government's economic strategy by opting for a US listing
It's the question on everyone's lips: could a four-day workweek be the future of employment?
Is Gold the Ultimate Safe Haven Asset in Times of Uncertainty?
Spain officials quit over trains that were too wide for tunnels...
Don Lemon, a CNN anchor, has provided a list of five areas that he believes the black community needs to address.
Hello. Here is our news digest from London.
Corruption and Influence Buying Uncovered in International Mainstream Media: Investigation Reveals Growing Disinformation Mercenaries
Givenchy Store in New York Robbed of $50,000 in Merchandise
European MP Clare Daly condemns US attack on Nord Stream
Former U.S. President Carter will spend his remaining time at home and receive hospice care instead of medication
Tucker Carlson called Trump a 'demonic force'
US Joins 15 NATO Nations in Largest Space Data Collection Initiative in History
White House: No ETs over the United States
U.S. Jet Shoots Down Flying Object Over Canada
Being a Tiktoker might be expensive…
SpaceX, the private space exploration company, made a significant breakthrough in their mission to reach space.
China's top tech firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase, and JD.com, are developing their own versions of Open AI's AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT
This shocking picture, showing how terrible is the results of the earthquake in Turkey
President Joe Biden delivered the 2023 State of the Union Address , in order to help Americans that missed the 2022 speech, do not have internet, and suffer from short memory.
The desk of King Carlos Alberto of Sardinia has many secret compartments
Today's news from Britain - 9th February 2023
The five largest oil companies in the West generated combined profits of nearly $200 billion in 2022, which has led to increased calls for governments to impose tougher windfall taxes
×