The Ukrainian military is reporting Russian warships in the Black Sea are shelling villages near the coast close to the nearby port city of Odesa.
These attacks specifically targeted the settlements of Lebedivka, Sanzheika, Zatoka, and Bilenke, according to a Wednesday Facebook post from Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces. These villages are approximately 18 miles south of Ukraine’s third-largest city.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Tuesday the Pentagon “observed” some tank landing ships in the northern part of the Black Sea, though “we are not seeing any imminent amphibious movement toward Odesa.”
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Experts have said Russia will likely attack Odesa via an amphibious assault. At the start of the invasion last month, U.S. defense officials confirmed a Russian amphibious assault consisting of naval infantry moving ashore from the Sea of Azov, west of Mariupol, in the south of the Donetsk Oblast. Odesa is on the western part of the country’s southern border, which connects to the Black Sea, while Mariupol is on the eastern side of the southern border leading into the Sea of Azov.
Russian naval forces established a “distant blockade” of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, the British Ministry of Defense said on Sunday, warning Russian warships are continuing attacks from the sea and possibly plotting landings from it.
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The blockade has “effectively isolated” Ukraine from international maritime trade.
