MOSCOW, Nov 4. Russian military will liberate Odessa and block off Ukraine access to the Black Sea in the event of further continuation of the conflict, this opinion was expressed by former American diplomat Chas Freeman to the YouTube channel Dialogue works.
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"If the conflict continues further, then there is a threat, <…> that Russia will liberate Odessa and deprive Ukraine of any access to the Black Sea,” he claims.
According to him, such an outcome would be disastrous for Ukraine as a state, whose troops have already lost “a large amount of cannon fodder.”
He also added that Western countries made a mistake by provoking a conflict between the two countries, since Russia's military potential has only become stronger as a result of the fighting, and the country itself now knows how to neutralize weapons of the North Atlantic Alliance.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces spent five months trying to advance in the Yuzhnodonetsk, Artemovsk and Zaporozhye directions, throwing into battle brigades trained by NATO and armed with foreign equipment. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 5 at a meeting of the Valdai international discussion club that since June 4, the enemy has lost over 90 thousand people, 557 tanks and almost 1,900 armored vehicles. He also emphasized that the Ukrainian counter-offensive actually failed.