Odessa Next? Satellite Images Show 14 Russian Warships Heading To Black Sea Port City

A fleet of Russian warships, including amphibious warfare vessels, are heading toward the Black Sea port city of Odesa, a strategic military prize and an important commercial center. This comes as Ukrainian media reports that Russian ships opened missile and artillery fire on two populated localities of Odessa.

Recent satellite images show what appears to be 14 Russian warships heading toward Odessa in three distinct groups. The images were taken by Sentinel 2 satellite, according to defense analyst H I Sutton. He added that the lead vessel of the column of landing ships was acting as a minesweeper, towing a sweeping device.

Of the three groups, two are made up of combatants while the third group has several landing ships, the analyst said in a piece he wrote for Naval News. The landing crafts seem to have come directly from their staging position off the Crimean coast.

The northern group is in a line-astern formation(a form in which a number of ships follow one another in a line) and is led by a tug boat or minesweeper. It is followed by two Ropucha class landing ships, another tug boat and a trailing Ropucha.

According to Sutton, the second group is in a square formation and consists of smaller warships such as missile corvettes. The southern group is led by the Slava Class cruiser Moskva. Besides the cruiser, there are two Alligator class landing ships, and the Ivan Gren class landing ship Pyotr Morgunov. A smaller warship, possibly a Buyan-M class missile corvette, also features in the group.

The images suggest that the Russians are finally descending on Odessa, 20 days after the invasion began. The offensive at Odessa was a long speculated one due to its strategic and symbolic significance. Not only does it hold an important status in Russian culture and history, but cutting off Odessa will also deprive Ukraine of a lifeline.

According to Alexey Muraviev, a regional expert and associate professor of national security and strategic studies at Curtin University, the battle for Odesa would play one of the key roles in determining the future political outcome of the current conflict. "For Russia, the complete control of Ukraine’s Black Sea and the Sea of Azov coasts may [be more important] than the seizure of Kharkiv or western Ukraine combined," Muraviev told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, people are Odessa are taking steps to fortify the city against amphibious landings and attacks. They are mining beaches and setting up tank traps and other obstacles in the streets.

However, the latest reports suggest that several missiles and shells were fired, and two residents were injured.