On July 19, the Russian Air Force struck another blow at the port infrastructure in Odesa. Incoming air targets were also detected in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, Kropyvnytskyi, and Kyiv. Russia employed four types of missiles, including Kalibr, Onyx, Kh-22, and Kh-59, as well as 32 Iranian-made attack UAVs. Ukraine’s’ air defense forces destroyed 14 out of 31 missiles and 23 drones. The so-called «anti-ship» missile, Kh-22, boasts of great destructive power but, given its low precision quality, deploying this type of missile at an urban area constitutes a war crime. Odesa suffered the most devastating shelling since the outset of the war, while Russian media sources openly declare that from now on, Russia will wage war on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure to wipe it out as such.
Russia is consistently destroying the port infrastructure in Ukraine, used for the shipment and export of grain as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. This conclusion is supported by the second shelling of ports in Odesa and Mykolaiv regions over the past two days. Russia withdrew from the «grain deal» on July 18, and immediately after that, Russian media outlets, including propaganda-ridden Telegram channels, started spreading the narrative about the need to destroy Ukrainian ports so that Ukraine could not export grain as such. Theses were voiced about the need to destroy key bridges, motorways, railway junctions, major enterprises, as well as «decision-making centers» in Ukraine.
A characteristic feature of the latest shelling is the use of a «swarm» of missiles attacking their targets. In such circumstances, air defenses get quickly exhausted, being unable to shoot down all the incoming missiles or drones employed to detect and also exhaust air defense weapons. The change in the Russian tactics makes even more urgent Ukraine’s need for additional air defense capabilities. Among other missiles, Russia uses the Kh-22 type, which is rather difficult to shoot down, given the short approach time from the Black Sea launch area to Ukrainian ports they target. In order to protect Ukraine’s seaport infrastructure, the most effective air defense systems such as Patriots, which have repeatedly proven their efficiency by shooting down such Russian missiles as Kinzhals and Iskanders, should be additionally delivered. Russia has an impressive stockpile of Kh-22 missiles accumulated since Soviet times. The Kremlin did not use this type of missile often because Moscow hoped to quickly occupy Ukraine, keeping its infrastructure for its own use. After 16 months of war and the collapse of the idea of «seizing Kyiv in three days», Putin is up to annihilating critical infrastructure across Ukraine. Hitler employed similar tactics at the end of the German-Soviet war, ordering the troops retreating under the pressure of the USSR to destroy infrastructure on the territory of Germany.
The above has all the signs of a war crime and genocide of Ukrainians on national grounds. Russia is capable of inflicting serious destruction on the civil infrastructure across Ukraine and they don’t even hide the fact that the main target of their missile strikes will be ports, bridges, roads, and railways. Also, Russia seeks to provoke a collapse in Ukraine’s energy system on the eve of the winter period by launching missile strikes on electric substations – the same as they did last winter. At that time, thanks to Western partners, Ukraine held out and resumed electricity sales to Europe in March 2023. Accordingly, it is now already necessary to prepare for the worst scenario by boosting supplies of air defense equipment as a guarantee of not only of preserving the industrial and transport infrastructure of Ukraine, but also of saving thousands of human lives.