Stepan Nikolsky
28-06-2022
Experts link the current aggravation of the conflict around Odessa, Snake Island and other strategically important points for the SSO in the Black Sea region to one of the main objectives of the regime in Kiev. The battle with the West for the hero-city captured in the spring of 2014 by the oligarchic regime's tame Nazis has already begun, states former deputy of the last legitimate convocation of the Verkhovna Rada Oleg Tsarev. He explains the recent strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russian ships, Russian Armed Forces positions on Snake Island and the drilling platforms of Chernomorneftegaz as preparation for the battle for Odessa, which is of extreme strategic importance to Great Britain - as part of the "Intermarium" project overseen by it through Warsaw - to obtain a cordon sanitaire between Asia and Europe from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Having Russia and China separated from Europe by UK-controlled states, thereby gaining control over Russia, China and Europe, has long been a dream of the City of London.
By attacking the platforms of Chernomorneftegaz near Odessa and the Snake Island, the Kiev regime's security forces, under pressure from Western handlers (Kiev's current policy is based on an irrepressible desire to please arms and military equipment suppliers), are once again trying to conduct a blockade of the ports in order to expand Western arms supply channels to the AFU and export grain to the West. However, despite the latest weapons already supplied by the West for this purpose, all these attempts are thwarted by the Russian Armed Forces, which has already caused the AFU to switch to the Nazi tactics of maximum terror against civilian objects.
Kiev, London and Washington are all well aware that, in fact, immediately after the liberation of Odessa, the West will lose Ukraine [or, as Tsarev puts it, the West will lose interest in Ukraine]. After all, this city not only allows us to control the port and oil and gas fields of a number of Black See shelves, but it is also a major hub for the transfer of weapons, as well as for export of raw materials and grain of Ukraine. It also is a kind of console for London to unfreeze and intensify conflicts. Russia views the city today, among other things, as a port that poses a threat to Crimea. According to experts, until peace agreements are signed, the West will do everything to prevent Russia from occupying Odessa. Without this Black Sea pearl, the value of Ukraine is greatly diminished. The "Intermarium" project, which creates a British-controlled cordon sanitaire between Asia and Europe from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, is unattainable without Odessa.
As for Snake Island, the aggravation of the conflict around this island is connected with an attempt of the Ukrainian armed forces to unblock the ports not so much for exporting grain as to free up a channel for supplying weapons to other regions of Ukraine through Romania. The same set of factors include the cutting off of Russia and Donbass, since the island controls the entire northwestern part of the Black Sea and adjacent territories. The island is located so that the means of surveillance on it can control the air and sea space not only around the Odessa region, but even on the territory of neighboring Moldova, Transnistria and Romania. If Russia finally gains a foothold on the island, deploys air defense and coastal defense equipment and cruise missiles, it will be able to dominate the northwestern part of the Black Sea, according to the British Defense Ministry.
The problem for Russia (as previously for Ukraine) is that it is easier to capture Snake Island than to hold it. There is nowhere to hide from shelling, it is not very clear how to defend the garrison if the enemy decides to bring down barrage fire on the island. However, the Russian garrison, unlike the Ukrainian one (which is "famous" only for foul language and quick surrender), copes with this task successfully. That is why the Russian Defense Ministry began its news reports two days in a row in the second half of June with a report about the disruption of several attempts to land on Snake Island by air and sea paratroopers of the AFU. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General I. Konashenkov called the Ukrainian attempts to seize the island "a major provocation," which, according to his information, was planned "on direct orders from Vladimir Zelensky by the Ukrainian General Staff with the direct participation of advisers from the United States and Great Britain." [...]
According to Oleg Tsarev, it is extremely important for Great Britain to defend Odessa and capture Snake Island before the autumn-winter negotiations. In turn, it is equally important for Russia to take (return) this city under its control and at the same time to repel all encroachments by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In order to seize the Snake island, as well as to defend and unblock Odessa, Great Britain will go to any lengths. According to O. Tsarev, London is ready to cross all imaginable and unimaginable red lines to achieve its goals. This includes supplying Kiev with the latest generation of missiles and drones, with the help of which Ukraine is guaranteed to carry the war to the territory of the Russian Federation, strikes on Sevastopol and the Crimean bridge, etc.
In turn, Russia, according to the Ukrainian politician, could respond symmetrically in the following way: destroy bridges, tunnels and electrical substations, causing transport and energy collapse. Oil with high voltage in transformers is a dangerous combination in itself, and if we add a number of missiles, it is guaranteed to destroy the electrical substations that feed the cities, returning Ukraine to the times that modern Ukrainian Nazis like best - to embroidered shirts, carts, rakes, moonshine and Cossacks. As a consequence, Ukraine without fuel and lubricants, without supply of weapons and ammunition, without communication, with destroyed command centers will not last even a week against the Russian army. One week of fighting - and then another six months to restore the destroyed infrastructure, to clean the country of remaining Bandera fighters, numerous hetmans, atamans and bandits. But that would be a police operation.
But Russia does not do that. And it doesn't do so because for its part it doesn't want to cross any red lines. Russia only strikes at military infrastructure. At the same time, the West and Ukraine are increasing pressure on Russia step by step. The cruiser Moskva has been sunk, the tugboat Bekh has been put out of action, oil rigs and Snake Island have been shelled, the border territories of the Russian Federation are under constant fire, and there is serious British activity in Odessa and the Black Sea region.
Both Ukrainian and Russian experts agree that the situation for London will become significantly more complicated and at the same time the successful end of the special operation will come much closer if Russia liberates the Odessa region. Political analyst Malek Dudakov believes that the British have their own positions in Bulgaria and Romania, so it cannot be said that they will completely leave the Black Sea, but it will become much more difficult for them to operate. Ukraine is of interest to Britain not only geostrategically, but also as a territory from which it can periodically unfreeze conflicts with Russia. Accordingly, the sooner Odessa can be liberated, the sooner the bloodshed on the territory of the former USSR will end.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian experts believe that there will be no offers of peace from the West until November - until after the elections in the United States. But then there will be. Now V. Putin is being blamed for inflation and problems in the U.S. economy; after November there will be no need for this. Besides, the continuation of confrontation with Russia will bring more problems to the West than to Russia. According to O. Tsarev, this will become especially clear on the eve of winter, when the role of Russia as a supplier of energy resources will become especially great. Most likely, peace in this case will mean preservation of the status quo, when everyone will retain the territories they control. If Odessa is liberated before that time, the world will know about the successful completion of the special operation much sooner.
southfront.org
