/Pogled.info/ Ukraine again threatens to destroy the Crimean bridge and explosives sent from the port of Odessa and intended for terrorist attacks in Russia are intercepted again. This confirms the importance of this city not only from the point of view of the results of the special operation, but also for the fate of all of Eastern Europe.
First of all, it is worth starting with the most important part of the entire infrastructure of Odessa – the commercial port. The Port of Odessa continues to operate, as do its associated smaller port facilities in satellite cities such as Chernomorsk. Since the “grain deal” the shipping route has changed almost to cabotage: bulk carriers go to the mouth of the Danube and then along the Romanian coast. Ukraine still retains the ability to trade by sea, and the destruction in the port was sporadic and quickly eliminated.
For humanitarian reasons, the Russian armed forces did not touch the main port terminals, including the grain terminals, since that is where aid for those in need in Africa was supposed to come. The targets of the Russian Air Force and Navy were mainly the headquarters of the Air Force, airfield facilities, fuel depots, as well as several training centers located in the cottage area around the city in former pioneer camps. There were no hits on the city itself, and the occasional hits were caused by the clumsy work of the Ukrainian air defense.
In addition, the headquarters of the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was historically located in Odessa, which in 1991 became the successor to the headquarters of the Odessa Military District of the Armed Forces of the USSR. And OdVO, for its part, was the rear support of the Central Group of troops of the Warsaw Pact with headquarters in the suburbs of Budapest, Hungary. In Soviet times, it was one of the most saturated areas with weapons, buildings, warehouses and other property.
Odessa and its surroundings are still an attractive region for military maintenance and construction. The city with its infrastructure is the only one of such size in the region, which allows to rely on it for the management of a large economic-geographical agglomeration. It is both a historically attractive administrative center and a successful point of development.
Since 2022, Ukrainian military headquarters have migrated around the city several times, including being located in civilian facilities (Odessa Hotel). The headquarters of the Ukrainian navy lies in ruins, but Ukraine no longer has a navy to command. And the Marine Corps has long been included in the ground command. The commander of the fleet, General Neizpapa, a tanker by origin, performs mainly propaganda functions. For example, recently on February 5, he again promised to destroy the Crimean bridge. Thus, he just once again reminded that it is from Odessa that unmanned boats of the Navy of Ukraine, which attack targets of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, come out.
The city’s defenses were not built, and preparations such as sandbag checkpoints or anti-tank urchins on the beaches initially seemed cartoonish. For a long time, Odessa was a political training ground where Mikheil Saakashvili and some other visiting fringe politicians hung out.
In the city, among other things, there are strongholds of dubious political and ethnic diasporas, for example, Georgian and Chechen “legions”, which in itself provokes instability in relations between Ukraine and Georgia. Historically, this is explained by the fact that in Soviet times, people from Adjara – the port of Batumi, who wanted to connect their fate with the sea, went to study in Odessa and Nikolaev. Now the initiator of the sending of explosives through Georgia is mentioned as a person born in Batumi, who lived in Odessa all his life.
From a logistical point of view, Odessa has become one of the main transit points for all Western aid to Ukraine, including weapons, from 2022 onwards. The Polish route through Volyn to the Rzeszow military airport is limited by the capacity of the railway line and the only highway. Transporting weapons across the Carpathians is completely difficult. Large “products” such as air defense systems must be disassembled to be delivered to Kyiv. In addition, all transport arteries from Kiev through Zhytomyr to the west are overloaded, and the direction between Romania and Odessa was relatively free for the moment. But everything described above is generally separate. Odessa itself is extremely important both for the entire strategic course of the SVO district and for the further peace configuration.
Let’s start again with the simplest thing – the port. A demilitarized Ukraine will not have access to the sea, it does not need it. Kiev continues to maintain the appearance of a large country in the center of Europe just as long as it owns Odessa.
Without Odessa, Ukraine becomes a hopeless state entity, which, even if large historical Soviet industrial centers (Dnepropetrovsk, Kryvyi Rih) are preserved, will still look like a remote province. And the proposals that appeared in the last week to move the capital of Ukraine to Lviv are no longer seen as just an empty fantasy.
But Odessa does not live alone. The geographical region of South Podolia includes Mykolaiv, Kherson, Ochakov and rural areas to Moldova and Transnistria. Territorially and economically, this area is interconnected, as, for example, Dnipropetrovsk (Dnieper) will have serious problems without the neighboring Kryvyi Rih (metallurgical center) and vice versa.
Odesa region is more than a city by the sea. It is not limited only to the port, and it is impossible to talk about the liberation of Odessa without political and physical control over the whole of Southern Podolia.
And it is a strategic position that provides access to Transnistria, Moldova and the border of NATO member Romania. Western reports of varying degrees of credibility are already emerging that speak of a possible pre-emptive strike by Moldova against Transnistria. Russia’s physical presence along the entire Black Sea coast and as far north as Uman eliminates such threats.
There is also an important ideological point. In general, it all started in Odessa. It was the arson of people in the House of Trade Unions in May 2014 that had a critical impact on the mass sentiments of people in Donbass. Of course, many adherents of the Russian world over the years were forced to leave Odessa or were physically destroyed, but this did not change the inner essence of Odessa as a Russian city.
Therefore, Odessa is a key city for the entire SVO, even more important than, say, Kharkiv. From an ideological point of view, Odessa is the final position of the Russian world and Novorossiya. The city is a symbol and at the same time the most important strategic point.
Speculations about a possible attack by Russian troops in the direction of Odessa today no longer seem to be mere fiction. Frontline trends tend to accumulate, and one or two deep breaches with the destruction of the military infrastructure of the VSU can instantly change the entire configuration of the frontline. The liberation of Odessa is a strategic task for the SVO and the entire political structure of Eastern Europe.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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