Russian air strikes and shelling killed six people in Ukraine and caused “significant damage” to infrastructure at the Black Sea port of Odesa and to grain storage facilities, Ukrainian officials said on Monday (25 September).
The air attacks were part of a campaign that has made it harder for major grain producer Ukraine to export its products since Moscow quit a deal in mid-July that had enabled Black Sea shipments and helped combat a global food crisis.
The strikes have intensified as Kyiv presses on with a counteroffensive in the south and east that has made slow gains but could be boosted by the delivery of US-made Abrams tanks, announced on Monday by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine has been heavily reliant on Western weapons to defend itself against Russia and then to hit back in the counteroffensive that began in early June.
Announcing the latest arms delivery, Zelenskyy said Abrams tanks had already arrived in Ukraine and were being prepared for action.
“I am grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements! We are looking for new contracts and expanding our supply geography,” said Zelenskyy, who visited the US last week.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the latest air attack was “a pathetic attempt” to retaliate for a strike on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea navy on Friday.
Ukraine’s special forces said on Monday they had killed Moscow’s top admiral in Crimea Viktor Sokolov along with 33 other officers in last week’s missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol.
Moscow-installed authorities in Sevastopol, however, were taking extra measures to address Ukraine’s increased attacks on Crimea.
If confirmed, Sokolov’s killing would be one of Kyiv’s most significant strikes on the Black Sea peninsula, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters to confirm or deny that Admiral Sokolov, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet and one of Russia’s most senior navy officers, had been killed.
Ukraine’s strategy
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks in the Black Sea and on Crimea and started using missiles in addition to assault drones. Kyiv has said that destroying the Russian Black Sea fleet would significantly speed up the end of the war.
Earlier this month, Russia’s defence ministry said that Ukraine attacked a Black Sea naval shipyard with 10 cruise missiles.
In a possible indication of how serious the recent Ukrainian attacks on Sevastopol have been, the Russian-installed governor of the city held a meeting on Monday to work out better defence and attack warning systems for the city.
“We understand that we have moved into a new situation that requires a systemic response,” Russian agencies cited the governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, as telling its government.
“Earlier, we and our military faced attacks from unmanned vehicles … Now everything has changed and we must be prepared for this kind of threat.”
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday its air defences had shot down drones over the northwestern part of the Black Sea, over Crimea, and over the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod. It mentioned no deaths.
Kyiv did not comment on the Russian reports, and Moscow offered no comment on the air strikes in Ukraine.
Ukraine is increasingly shipping grain along the Danube River, by road and by train, and has established a “humanitarian corridor” hugging the Black Sea coast to ship grain for African and Asian markets. The first two vessels carrying grain to use the corridor left the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk last week.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
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