Oil depot near Nilolaev port
On July 17, Moscow suspended the grain deal. In his turn, Zelensky declared that “Ukraine intends to continue the implementation of the grain deal without Russia”. However, Kiev is impotent to secure the navigation in the Black Sea by its own means. In its turn, Russia has withdrawn its guarantees of the safety of navigation in the north-western waters.
Zelensky tries playing a great diplomat who is saving the word, mainly the starving countries of Europe; but his wet dreams are shattered on the rocks of reality. On the night of July 18, Russian forces struck the largest sea ports that remained under Kiev’s control. Russian missiles and Geranium UAVs struck facilities in Odessa and Nikolaev.
The air alert sounded almost throughout Ukraine, while Russian forces targeted port facilities in Odessa and Nikolaev.
According to the operational command of the Ukrainian South group of forces, six Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea was recorded over Odessa. However, the Ukrainian side claims that all of them were shot down by mighty Ukrainian air defense forces. Moreover, 21 Geranium UAVs were allegedly shot down over the Odessa region at night.
While the Ukrainian military was bravely deciding on the number of intercepted targets to declare, Russian forces reached their targets in the port, which the last ship with Ukrainian grain recently left withing the grain deal.
The head of the public council at the Odessa regional Military Administration was forced to confirm damage to the port but declared that it was allegedly caused by wreckage of four Russian missiles and the blast wave. A man was reportedly injured in one of the houses nearby, he was hospitalized.
Footage from the spot revealed that he was lying and confirmed successful strikes in the port:
According to the Ukrainian military, four Russian UAVs were allegedly shot down near Nikolaev. However, miraculously a large fire broke out at the oil depot near the port.
The Russian military was not long to wait to confirm the retaliation strikes on Ukrainian military facilities.
“All the targets were hit. Fires and detonation were recorded at the destroyed facilities,” the military department said in a statement.
On the morning of July 18, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed that the strikes targeted facilities “where terrorist acts with unmanned boats against the Russian Federation were being prepared, as well as the place of their manufacture at a ship repair plant near the city of Odessa.”
In the area of the cities of Nikolaev and Odessa, fuel storage facilities with a total volume of about 70 thousand tons were destroyed, from which fuel was supplied to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Odessa and Nikolaev are the largest port cities in Ukraine. The suspension of the grain deal is a great blow on the Ukrainian economy. However, Kiev and its Western partners preferred to use the safe corridors to launch terrorist attacks and kill Russian citizens. Lying that the export from Ukraine is necessary to save world from hunger, Kiev sent only 2.6% of its grain to sub-Saharan states.
Night strikes signaled Kiev that it could not export its grain by maritim routs in the Black Sea without Russian demands are fulfilled.
