The number one obstacle to ships leaving Ukrainian ports is the mines laid by the Ukrainians. This was also confirmed by Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, who said: ‘The withdrawal of ships with grain from Ukrainian ports is hindered by Ukrainian mines. The search for a mechanism to solve the problem is currently underway,’ the Turkish Foreign Ministry chief added. Ankara cancelled and postponed a series of NATO military exercises in connection with the provisions of the Montreux Convention on the exclusion of warships from the Black Sea – Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu.
Putin himself gave that Russia has enabled two corridors for ships to leave the port of Mariupol, but these must be secured by Ukraine. The only one that has maps of where it has planted mines.
Control of the sea around Ukraine is becoming more and more of an issue to such an extent that according to the Russians, NATO-backed Ukraine will once again attempt to take Snake Island. According to Russian social sources, the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and, in particular, the Western advisors in charge of it, have taken past failures into account and are now making more thorough preparations to retake the Island.
The main task of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is to obtain Western weapons. The Ukrainian command is awaiting the delivery of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, which are needed to destroy Russian Navy ships. Currently, the Ukrainian forces are actively conducting training for landing on an unequipped coastline. A reconnaissance of the Russian Armed Forces’ positions on the island with the help of the UAV Bayraktar is also underway.
Since 25 May, strategic UAVs RQ-4B Global Hawk of the US Air Force and RQ-4D Phoenix of the NATO Air Force have been operating daily in the Black Sea waters, monitoring the activities of the Russian Navy’s naval group. On the evening of 32, a joint training session was held to organise communications between the units of the 73rd SOF Centre, Navy vessels, and the 14th Tank Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force. This was managed by employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate with a command post by a heterogeneous force grouping, which we wrote about earlier. Finally, anti-aircraft missile systems were deployed in the area of Desantnoye and Glubokoe to cover the units from missile attacks.
In the coastal area from Odessa to Zatoka, the maritime security vessels ‘Grigory Kuropyatnikov’, ‘Balaklava’, ‘Krym’, ‘Nikolaev’ and ‘Odessa’, equipped with Western-made MANPADS, are in constant service.
The Russians, however, are aware of these plans and unlike the time when the Moskva was attacked and sunk, they are now on a state of alert, not excluding a pre-emptive attack on the Ukrainian navy forces in a pre-emptive function.
The whole thing is impermalent and in the making, what is certain is that whoever controls Snake Island will control the sea routes to and from Ukraine. And it could change the fate of the war.
Graziella Giangiulio
