Russia wanted to encircle Odesa and land amphibious troops
Russia planned to encircle Odesa
The Russians were planning a naval landing near Odesa in February-March 2022, but only in case of a decisive success on land, in the Mykolaiv region, according to the Navy Commander, Vice Admiral Oleksii Neizhpapa.
"As a rule, amphibious operations are not the main type of operations in full-scale combat operations. It is an auxiliary operation in the coastal direction. To conduct it, the enemy must first succeed on land. Not to capture Mykolaiv, although that was also in his plans, but to bypass it from the north to encircle Odesa. And that's when it made sense to make the landing," the Navy commander said.
According to Neizhpapa, these plans were disrupted by the Ukrainian 80th Air Assault Brigade, which stopped the Russian column near Voznesensk.
According to him, since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, the enemy fleet has been conducting demonstration actions off the coast of the Odesa region. It formed a group of landing ships with a full brigade of marines.
There were also fire support ships, supply ships, and a group to isolate the combat zone: the enemy was wary of NATO ships.
This spring, SSU officers exposed an agent group of the Russian FSB that was engaged in reconnaissance and subversive activities in the Odesa region.
In particular, the suspects "leaked" the coordinates of railway infrastructure facilities, the strikes on which were supposed to partially stop train traffic in the region.
