Without Odessa, Ukraine cannot even think of a rebuild, that is if and when the war ends. The nation has been set back by decades following the war waged on it by Russia – or what Russian president Vladimir Putin calls military operation – and cast an economic uncertainty on Europe as well as globally.
It is important also to understand why the Russian takeover of Odessa scares Europe and the US. If Odessa falls, Russia can access Moldova’s Russophone regions like Transnistria as well. Along with Moldova’s Transnistria and southeastern Ukraine, it would mean that Russia controls Black Sea and a significant part of world trade.
Odessa port has the facility of dealing with various cargo types. It handles all kinds of shipments starting from crude oil, petroleum products, LPG and vegetable oils to all kinds of metals, cast iron and bulk such as sugar, grains, paper bundles, and perishable goods like fruits and other items. Ukraine is economically reliant on Odessa and Russian forces have built a land corridor from Crimea deep into Donbas and plans to capture Odessa from already captured Kherson, the process will only accelerate when Mariupol falls. Mariupol, according to news agencies, is fighting till the last man and Vladimir Putin is obsessed with gaining control over the Black Sea.
While more arms supply could give a limited advantage to Ukrainian forces, it also raises the risks that Putin will press only harder. Russia said that it would attack arms shipments but so far has not acted on that warning. While the western mainstream media sings paeans of Ukrainian pride and courage, it fails to notice that prolonging the war will only deplete Ukraine’s ability to resurface stronger economically from the war.
The mainstream media in the United States continues its attempts to prolong the war in Ukraine by planning to supply more arms, weapons and tactical support as Russia seeks to seize control of southern and eastern Ukraine.
An opinion piece in the Washington Post titled ‘Putin’s Plan A in Ukraine has failed. We can’t let his Plan B succeed’, columnist Fareed Zakaria says that the West and the US should supply Ukraine with ‘helicopters, armed Humvees, multiple-launch rocket systems and drones of every kind’ and help it wage an asymmetric war to counter the Russian Navy.
While the article rightly argues that were the port city of Odessa to fall, Ukraine would face an economic collapse but supplying Kyiv with more weapons while Putin isolates himself all the while becoming more unpredictable as the war wages on does not look like a good idea. Russia has earlier indicated that if it cannot conquer cities it will reduce them to rubble and such a future is not beneficial for either Ukraine or its port city of Odessa.
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