If General Valeri Zaluzhni, the Ukrainian chief of staff, told The Washington Post last week that he was ready to take back the Crimean peninsula, it won't happen tomorrow, but in the meantime it looks like he'll do whatever he can to make life miserable for the Russians there. “As soon as I have the means, I will do something. It's all the same to me, no one will stop me," Zaluzhni, the hetman (or Cossack leader) told the Post, defying the undeclared but well-accepted red line in the West – the reconquest of Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014 – that could push the war to its most dangerous limits.
Three missile hits, or maybe drone hits, maybe six, caused explosions and a tremendous fire early yesterday morning in the arsenal of a military base and training camp in Crimea, in the Kirovskoye district, near the city of Stari Krim. A highway that crosses the southern half of the peninsula was cut off and more than 2,000 people from four towns – Privetnoye, Aivazovskoye, Abrikosovka and Krinichki – had to be evacuated, according to Governor Sergei Axiónov. The president of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, said yesterday that the evacuated population would not be able to return to their homes for another two or three days, once the fire was extinguished.
After the attack, last weekend, on the Kerch bridge, which links the peninsula with Russia, yesterday's bombardment seems destined to make life impossible for tens of thousands of Russian tourists, something similar to the attack on the Saki military airfield, near the town of Novofyódorovka, in August 2022. Vacationers saw the smoke from the fires from the beach, as on this occasion. According to statements from tourists collected by the Russian media, this year the influx of visitors is somewhat less, but until now – and ignoring the presence of military forces and road controls – everything was calm.
Shortly before the attack on the Kirovske arsenal, Russian forces shelled Odessa again. The attacks in Crimea and the suspension by Russia of the agreement for the export of Ukrainian grain has brought the war back to the nerve centers of the Ukrainian south. On the second night of bombing on Odesa, grain silos and port infrastructure were hit. In another of the three main Black Sea ports, Chornomorsk, 60,000 tons of grain have burned in two nights, which, according to Ukrainskaya Pravda, should have been loaded on a large-tonnage ship and shipped 60 days ago. A large part of the grain export infrastructure of this port was put out of service and, according to what experts told the aforementioned media, it will take at least a year to fully restore the affected facilities.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said 10 civilians, including a 9-year-old boy, were injured in the shelling, which damaged warehouses, shopping malls, 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 starting Thursday midnight; that is, the flag states of ships traveling to Ukrainian ports will be considered by the Russian Defense Ministry as a party to the conflict on the Ukrainian side.
