Volodimir Zelenski before the Russian offensive: "They want to destroy Odessa, the bottom of the Black Sea awaits them"

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The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, responded to the announced offensive of the Russian fleet against the city of Odessa with one of those habitual defiant speeches that have already become a trademark of the house.

"The enemy also wants to destroy Odessa, but he will only see the bottom of the Black Sea. Because they are already at the bottom," the president declared shortly after his military chiefs confirmed that the Russian Black Sea fleet has set sail from Crimea and is already in the vicinity of the main Ukrainian coastal city, which is emerging as the next big target of Moscow's invasion.

According to a statement released by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the Russian convoy is made up of

.

"They are heading to Odessa," the text read.

The naval deployment of the Russian flotilla has aggravated the problematic navigation in the Black Sea, which could be completely interrupted after an Estonian cargo ship sank during the day when hitting a mine.

The incident comes just a day after another Bangladeshi transport ship was hit by an explosion that killed one of its sailors.

"

. It is not clear if it was a bomb or a missile or who launched the attack. The other 28 crew members did not suffer any damage," said Pijush Dutta, director of the firm that owns the freighter in statements to the Reuters agency.

At least three cargo ships of as many nationalities have been damaged in recent days in the Black Sea area as Russian harassment around the Ukrainian coast intensified, where it is trying to capture Odessa and the port of Mariupol, after having managed to dominate the city of Kherson.

During the day there were several punctual bombardments along the coast.

In mid-afternoon, a Russian plane attempted to attack a power station near Odessa.

Local media indicated that it had been shot down.

Shortly before, more than a dozen people were strolling placidly along the Chornomorsk beach, a few kilometers from the scene of the aforementioned air incident.

Some were walking their dogs and others like Sokolov Evgeny had taken their son for a walk in the park.

When asked about the calm that is still perceived in the Odessa region when everything indicates that an unprecedented amphibious assault in Europe since the last century is coming, Evgeny admitted that even he was hiding behind absolute denialism.

"I think we don't know what a war means, we don't want to recognize that we are at war. It's very hard," he said.

Photographer and graphic designer, Evgeny is another of those who yearns for the Soviet Union, although in this case more out of nostalgia or an idyllic conception of what that ideological experiment meant, than out of wanting the Russian aegis to return.

"I would like us all to be one nation, all united. I hope we can grow old," he added.

The utopian spirit that seems to inspire Evgeny fades by the minute in this region.

The roads leading to the beaches that stretch out along the coast of Odessa and the surrounding cities are now a constant succession of military checkpoints, where monumental traffic jams occur, except when cars have to hurriedly move out of the way in the face of passing a Ukrainian tank or armored vehicle.

Minor routes have been blocked with logs, cement blocks or anti-tank mines.

"

. The ships are moving from one side to the other and we can expect a landing at any moment. Their plan is to surround the city.

," he specified. daily the mayor of Odessa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, in the middle of the afternoon, in one of the basements where the offices of the local administration have been moved.

It was the same message launched by the new governor of the square, Colonel Maxim Marchenko, who said that Odessa is prepared to "repel the enemy and will not surrender."

The hypothesis of a possible siege is already the shocking reality that Mariupol has had to deal with for days, whose mayor launched a desperate appeal through social networks in which he accused the Russians of preventing the supply of food, water or electricity.

," said Vadym Boychenko.

His number two, Sergei Orlov, reported in a television interview that the situation is "so critical" that they do not even know the number of deaths caused by the Russian onslaught because they cannot "collect all the bodies."

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