State Duma Defense Committee member Andrey Kolesnik said Russia could be forced to cut Ukraine off from the sea if Kiev rejects peace initiatives and the West continues supplying weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to Kolesnik, such a scenario would become necessary if Ukraine refused proposed terms and Western countries prevented the conflict from ending.
He also argued that the continued presence of Ukrainian troops in the Odessa Region poses a threat to Zaporozhye, Kherson and Crimea. Kolesnik said unmanned surface vessels and drones are launched from this direction, including from platforms operating at sea.
Earlier, fellow State Duma Defense Committee member Viktor Sobolev called for Russian forces to take control of the Odessa and Nikolayev regions in order to expand the buffer zone. Deputy Alexey Zhuravlev expressed a similar view, linking control over Odessa to what he described as the restoration of historical justice and access to Transnistria.
Russian forces had also previously struck the Yuzhny port in the Odessa Region. The attack hit facilities used to receive fuel for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as seven fuel and lubricant storage tanks.