Why Crimea now poses serious threat to southern Ukraine - Navy explains

According to Pletenchuk, ballistic missile launches are regularly carried out from the peninsula. These missiles have a very short flight time and are difficult to intercept, which makes the threat particularly dangerous for southern regions, especially Odesa.

Russia uses mobile launchers and carefully camouflages them, making detection difficult. At the same time, Ukrainian forces are actively working to counter these attacks and are strengthening control over the airspace and the Black Sea waters.

"These are mobile platforms. Russia uses them covertly. They really do everything necessary to make them hard to detect. For us, including the Navy, this remains a serious priority in this direction," Pletenchuk said.

The airspace over the sea poses an additional threat, as Russia actively uses it to carry out attacks.

The spokesperson also said that Russia is trying to expand the use of naval drones. Ukrainian forces are closely monitoring this activity and preparing appropriate countermeasures.

Strikes on Odesa

In recent days, new Russian drone and missile attacks have been recorded in the Odesa region.

On Thursday, January 1, Russian forces carried out drone strikes on Ukraine’s port infrastructure. Explosions were reported in the ports of Odesa and Izmail.

In December, Russian attacks damaged as many as 10 electrical substations in the Odesa region. In total, 25 attacks on energy facilities were recorded throughout 2025, including two new incidents on December 31. Energy workers had to work on New Year’s night to restore power.

In addition, on New Year’s night, Russian forces carried out several attacks with strike drones on Odesa, resulting in drone and debris falls in the city, fires at infrastructure facilities, and damage to residential buildings.