Ochakiv, Ukraine, Dec 12 (AFP/APP): After enduring months of shelling by Russian forces, officials in the strategic Ukrainian port of Ochakiv hope it can serve to consolidate Kyiv’s gains in the southern Kherson region.
The strategic Ukrainian Black Sea naval base — which lies on the mouth of the Dnipro river and serves as a gateway to several other key ports — has been relentlessly targeted by Russia since its February 24 invasion.
After failing to seize the port and its naval base, Russian troops have been pummelling Ochakiv from the nearby Kinburn peninsula.
Formerly a popular resort with white-sand beaches and seafront hotels, Ochakiv bears the scars of a town under relentless attack.
Under a damp fog at the local market, 62-year-old Oleg Klyutshko paid tribute to the resilience of both the residents and local officials.
“The town is functioning as well as the administration — they are doing all they can and we are protected by our soldiers,” he said.
“I am not afraid of winter,” Klyutshko said. But I would like the strikes to stop. We will survive anything else.”
Just last week, a Russian missile hit a residential building but there were no casualties.
Deputy mayor Oleksiy Vaskov gave AFP a tour of the city under close army supervision.
Vaskov said Ochakiv was the gateway to the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia, where Europe’s biggest nuclear plant is located, as well as Kyiv.
“That’s why it is important strategically, both in commercial and in military terms,” he said.
The town with a pre-war population of 15,000 was a target for Russia in the very first hours of the war, launched on February 24.
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