If General Valery Zalujni, the head of the Ukrainian General Staff, told The Washington Post last week that he was ready to take back the Crimean peninsula, that will not happen tomorrow, but in the meantime it seems that he will do whatever it takes to make life miserable for the Russians in that area. “As soon as I have the means, I will do something. It doesn’t matter to me, no one will stop me,” said ataman (or Cossack leader) Zalujni to the Post, defying the undeclared, but well assumed in the West, red line – the reconquest of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014 – that can bring the war to its most dangerous limits.
Three missile strikes, or drones, maybe six, yesterday morning caused explosions and a large fire in the arsenal of a military base and a training camp in Crimea, in the Kírovske district, near the town of Stari Krim. A road that crosses the southern half of the peninsula was cut off and more than two thousand people from four localities – Privetnoe, Aivazovskoie, Abrikossovka and Krinitskí – had to be evacuated, according to Governor Serguei Aksiónov. The president of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, said yesterday that the evacuated population would not be able to return to their homes until two or three days from now, once the fire has been extinguished.
After last weekend’s attack on the Kerch bridge, which connects the peninsula with Russia, yesterday’s bombing seems to be aimed at making life impossible for tens of thousands of Russian tourists, something similar to the attack on the Saki military airfield near the village of Novofiodorovka in August 2022. Vacationers could see smoke from the fires from the beach, like this time. According to statements from tourists collected by Russian media, this year the influx of visitors is a little lower, but so far – and ignoring the presence of military forces and road controls – everything was calm.
Shortly before the attack on the Kirovske arsenal, Russian forces were again bombarding Odessa. The attacks in Crimea and Russia’s suspension of the agreement for the export of Ukrainian grain has brought the war back to critical points in southern Ukraine. During the second night of bombing over Odessa grain silos and port infrastructure were attacked. In another of the three main Black Sea ports, Chornomorsk, 60,000 tons of grain were burned in two nights, which, according to Ukraínskaia Pravda, should have been loaded on a large tonnage ship and sent 60 days ago. Much of the grain export infrastructure at this port was knocked out of service and, some experts told this media outlet, it will take at least a year to fully restore the affected facilities.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reported that ten civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, were injured in the shelling, which damaged warehouses, shopping centers, administrative and residential buildings.
To make matters worse, Russia said yesterday that it would consider all ships traveling to Ukrainian Black Sea ports as potential arms carriers as of midnight today, Thursday; that is, the flag states of ships traveling to Ukrainian ports will be considered by the Russian Ministry of Defense as a party to the conflict on the Ukrainian side.
