Almost 90 bombs were dropped in one region in just 24 hours.

Almost 90 bombs were dropped in one region in just 24 hours.

Russia unleashed an unprecedented bombardment in southern Ukraine overnight in what local officials described as a “massive attack” in the conflict which has continued to rage even as the international community’s attention has moved to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry on Monday morning said Russia dropped at least “87 aerial bombs on populated areas of the Kherson region - the largest number for all time.” At least eight people were also injured in other Russian strikes carried out in the Odessa region further to the west on Sunday night.

  • wandermind@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    31·
    1 year ago

    Russia has a long stretch of Black Sea coast outside of the Sea of Azov. They don’t need any more land to use that.

    • jarfil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Please look again at the map for the Unified Deep Water System.

      This isn’t about having a port on the Black Sea, it’s about having ships from ports in inland Russia getting unobstructed waterway access to the Black Sea, from where they can go to the Mediterranean and beyond.

        • jarfil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          At this point, they don’t have many options, since their economy is based around using the waterways as main transport routes.

          Keep in mind Russia can have a container ship delivered from China right to Moscow, and viceversa.

          Russia’s best bet (around 2000-2010), was to befriend the EU, while getting rid of all their internal corruption, and start treating ex-USSR republics as proper states instead of relying on forcing puppet governments in them. Especially in Ukraine, they shouldn’t have burned their puppet government in 2014 by making it accept a worse deal than what the EU was offering, definitely not before at least having the country split in half and Crimea+Donbass secured as separate puppet countries.

          By uniting Ukraine, then making an enemy out of the EU, while still allowing a ton of internal corruption, Putin has screwed Russia royally.

          Russia’s only options right now are to either:

          • Roll over and ask the EU, Ukraine and NATO to pretty please forgive them… which Putin would not survive (best case scenario, he’d stand before the Hague tribunal, if he got to live that long)
          • Dig an even deeper hole for themselves until they go full nuclear… which Russia as a country would not survive (but maybe Putin could, in a good bunker)
          • Have a civil war… which Putin might be able to flee, while whoever ended up on top could roll over and ask the EU, Ukraine and NATO to forgive them pretty please.

          Speculatively:

          • Spend some bucks on Iran to support Hamas going full berserk in Gaza in an attempt to shift US attention from Ukraine… (which already had Republicans ask to reduce military aid for Ukraine while increasing it for Israel)… and hope to secure some more of Donbass before those F16 make it basically impossible for Russia to do anything. Then push for an armistice with the new borders.

          But it’s kind of impossible for Ukraine to willingly agree to that, highly unlikely for the EU to lift its sanctions just because, and NATO would still rather have Russia disappear as a threat completely.

          The EU might agree if it included guaranteeing a safe tax-free railway corridor to China, which would on one hand still hurt Russia, but on the other they could also benefit from a railway connection to China, even if it isn’t that much better than having container ships go from China right to Moscow.