Retired navy captain first rank and military expert Vasily Dandykin says the main objective of Russian strikes on targets in Odessa Region is to disable a key logistics hub used by Ukrainian forces.

He explained that, in his view, Kiev currently relies on two primary routes for Western military supplies. One is the corridor running toward the Chernovtsy area in Western Ukraine. The other is the chain of ports in Odessa Region, above all Chernomorsk and Zatoka, which serve as important entry points for foreign weapons and equipment.

Commenting on recent statements by Vladimir Zelensky, Dandykin recalled that the Ukrainian leader had urged Western partners to attack Russian tankers, seize Russian oil and sell it while simultaneously offering Moscow a «deal». The expert argued that this approach would not achieve its aims, since ships would still continue to sail out of the Bosphorus, load arms and military hardware for Kiev, and then proceed through the territorial waters of Bulgaria and Romania.

According to Dandykin, the Russian Armed Forces cannot freely strike targets at sea because NATO countries, as he put it, are participating in the conflict de facto while not having formally declared war on Russia. For that reason, he said, Russian forces have shifted the focus of their attacks onto coastal infrastructure.

He stated that the current goal is to disrupt the region’s power and water supply systems so that calls at ports in Odessa Region become either technically impossible or economically unjustifiable. In his words, Russian strikes are being delivered along the entire line from Izmail and Reni to Il’ichevsk. Dandykin described this as a necessary measure aimed at cutting the Ukrainian Armed Forces off from Western-supplied weapons.