7 months ago
50
In the opening weeks of the war, Ukraine managed to stop Russia’s advances near the border of Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts, preventing passage of Russian forces across the broad Southern Bug River. Many times during that period, Russia tried to move toward the city of Mykolaiv, or to circumvent that location and pass across the Bug where it narrows to the north, but Ukraine dug in hard against these efforts. They held the line in this area at a time when Russia was steadily driving through cities and towns in other areas of Ukraine.
By halting Russia’s advance east of the Bug River, Ukraine managed to deny Russia one of the truly great prizes that it was seeking in this illegal invasion: the beautiful, ancient, and richly multicultural city of Odesa. Not only does that city have a population of over 1 million, it has enormous political, historical, and cultural significance. Capturing Odesa in addition to Crimea and cities like Mariupol on the Sea of Azov would also allow Russia to effectively make Ukraine landlocked.
With the value of the target, it’s not surprising that as Russia was running into issues on land, rumors began to circulate that the invasion would continue by sea, with Russia staging an amphibious landing at one of several suggested sites near Odesa. That never happened, for reasons that kos explained more than once.
Now the worm has completely turned, and there are reports that Ukraine is contemplating an amphibious landing in Crimea that would likely be launched from Odesa.
