If there’s one aspect of the war in the Ukraine that cuts through the fog of war and the NATO propaganda with maximum efficiency is the question of access to sea ports.
Having already lost the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Ukraine also was driven out of all the coastal areas of the Sea of Azov in the first phase of the Russian military operation, which culminated in the conquest of Mariupol.
And in the last 10 days, ever since Russia bowed out of the Turkish-brokered Grain Deal, daily heavy bombardment of all the major Black Sea ports, coupled with a heavy naval blockade and even sea-mining of said ports has, for all practical purposes, transformed Ukraine into a landlocked country.
This will make economic problems even more acute than they already are, since grain is one of Ukraine’s major exports, and land transport of it may be impractical and economically unfeasible.
The daily combined-arms ordeal inflicted in the Black Sea coastal areas is filled with missiles like Onyxes, Khinzal-22s, Calibers, and Iskanders – as well as the by-now famed Iranian Geranium (Shahed) drones.
Watch: Iranian-made Geranium drones deployed Russian hit Reni port, right on the border of Romania. This was filmed from the Romanian side, literally a stone-throw away.
Reuters reported:
“Russian forces struck port infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odessa region in an overnight missile attack, killing a security guard and damaging a cargo terminal, the region’s governor said on Thursday.
Odessa’s ports have been regular targets for Russian attacks since Moscow withdrew on July 17 from a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea.
Before the latest attack, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said Russian air strikes had damaged 26 port infrastructure facilities and five civilian vessels in the previous nine days. He gave no further details of the damage.”
Fueal, ammo and also grain storages have suffered heavy losses.
Russian media recalled lately the information gathered from Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh in the beginning of the year.
TASS reported:
“Ukraine exploited the grain deal to smuggle narcotics and oil through Odessa, US publicist, Pulitzer Prize laureate Seymour Hersh says in his article, published on the Substack platform.
‘Odessa’s exports included illegal stuff like drugs and the oil that Ukraine was getting from Russia’, Hersh quotes a source in the US intelligence community as saying.”
Port infrastructure was heavily targeted.
By patrolling the Black Sea, Russia claims to be preventing terrorist attacks in Crimea and in the Crimean bridge.
Sputnik reported:
“Russia’s Federal Security Service has identified another foreign civilian vessel that could previously have been used to deliver explosives to Ukraine
Traces of TNT and dinitrotoluene were found in the hold and on the surface of the boat of the foreign dry cargo ship BMO River, en route from the Sinop, Turkiye to Rostov, the security service said.
This ship called at the Ukrainian port of Reni twice in June and July. Russia’s Federal Security Service added that a decision has been made to ban the passage of the vessel through the Kerch Strait.”
It is of note that the relentless bombing of the ports was carried even in Reni, that is a few hundred meters of the NATO-member Romanian border.
Russia never struck Ukrainian facilities so close to the territory of the military alliance.
The post LANDLOCKED: After Taking All Azov Sea Coastal Areas in the Start of the War, Russian Forces Now Are Blocking, Mining and Destroying the Infrastructure of All Ukrainian Black Sea Ports appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.