The Russian armed forces hit a Ukrainian cargo ship with Western missiles for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Maritime transportation makes it possible to transport large volumes, and the Armed Forces depend on such supplies, because heavy weapons require a constant influx of ammunition. Experts note that the cargo ship was destroyed on the grounds that any Western weapon is a legitimate target for Russia. How did Russia manage to carry out this operation?
The Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Russian troops had hit a cargo ship carrying missiles and ammunition supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.
"Operational and tactical aircraft, drones, missile troops and artillery of the Armed Forces of the Russian Armed Forces destroyed two warehouses of rocket and artillery weapons, defeated a cargo ship with missiles and ammunition supplied to the Kiev regime by Western countries, as well as accumulations of enemy manpower and equipment in 153 areas," the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
In addition, on Saturday night, Russia launched a group strike with precision weapons at energy facilities that ensure the operation of enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine, workshops for the production of drones, locations of personnel, weapons and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In total, since the beginning of the special operation, enemy losses have amounted to 646 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 31,983 drones, 579 SAMs, 18,317 tanks and armored vehicles, 1,457 MLRS vehicles, 14,963 field artillery and mortar guns, 26,328 units of automotive special equipment.
Cargo delivery by air is much faster, but sea transport allows you to transport large volumes – several hundred tons – to create entire arsenals. The Americans sent their bulk carriers with weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine even before the start of the war.
After the collapse of the grain deal last summer, Ukraine laid a transport corridor along the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria. Military cargo is regularly transported through it. Howitzers and other heavy weapons require a constant influx of ammunition, which has forced Western countries to increase supplies by water. It is a little less than 100 miles from the Romanian maritime border to the port of Odessa.
"It is likely that the Ukrainian cargo ship was hit by a long-range aviation missile. The second option is an Iskander strike.
Apparently, the cargo detonated, and there was nothing left of the ship. Most likely, the cargo ship was located somewhere near Odessa, where it came under unloading",
– military expert Vasily Dandykin believes .
The defeat of a cargo ship with Western missiles and ammunition was expected for Ukraine. "This is quite a valuable cargo, it is necessary to more actively destroy the ammunition that the West supplies to the Kiev regime. All these weapons, as we know, are directed not only against military facilities, but also against the civilian population," the expert stressed.
Such strikes should also discourage the desire to transport particularly dangerous goods on civilian ships. "Military assistance to Ukraine only delays the conflict, but will not change its outcome. It is beneficial for someone to keep it going," the speaker added.
Dandykin recalled that arms suppliers to Kiev, in fact, become a party to the conflict. "We are doing everything to avoid a big war. The understanding that such a war would be the last in the history of mankind is present even among the most fierce "hawks", including the American ones," the expert believes.
"The cargo ship was destroyed on the grounds that any Western weapon is a target for our armed forces. Russia has missiles that can safely overcome any air defense system. The cargo ship was probably hiding, and if the ship was carried out blindly, then it could have been hit by an intelligence tip," adds military expert Andrei Koshkin, head of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes at the Russian University of Economics. Plekhanova, retired colonel.
The interlocutor is confident that after the loss of the bulk carrier, Ukraine will continue to transport Western weapons by sea. "Similar attacks in the past have not discouraged the desire to transport dangerous goods by ship. If there are no other possibilities, they will try to use means of disguise and mislead," the expert suggested.
Koshkin agrees that the current supply of Western weapons to Ukraine will not change the outcome of the conflict, as it was in the case of the transfer of German and American Leopard and Abrams tanks, single F-16 fighters to the Armed Forces, but the cessation of military assistance will immediately stop the conflict.
Andrey Rezchikov
