Longer-range air-defenses protect the port of Odesa
On Nov. 25, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky dropped in at the International Summit on Food Security in
Kyiv and announced that Ukraine was preparing to deploy “very powerful air-defenses” to the oblast surrounding Odesa, Ukraine’s strategic grain port.
He wasn’t bluffing. Two weeks later, an unidentified missile shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber over Snake Island, reportedly while the twin-engine, two-person supersonic bomber was staging for an attack on Odesa or one of Ukraine’s river ports on the Danube Delta.
We don’t know exactly what kind of munition the Su-24 was carrying. Nor do we know for sure what kind of air-defense system shot down the swing-wing bomber—although we can guess. In any event, there’s a good chance that, in upgrading their southern air-defenses, Ukrainian forces have gained an advantage over Russian forces.
In short, it’s possible the Ukrainian air-defenses in Odesa now range farther than the land-attack missiles the Russian Black Sea Fleet tends to shoot at Odesa or Ukraine’s Danube ports.
The Ukrainian military confirmed the shootdown on social media.
“I am glad to inform you about the destruction of the Russian Su-24M bomber in the area of Snake Island, which, under the cover of an Su-30SM fighter, tried to launch a missile attack on the south of Odesa,” the unnamed poster wrote.
Read more: Forbes