Russian soldiers would ‘fail’ in the port city of Odesa, according to a member of parliament

            Authorities in Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa said residential areas were targeted for the first time since the fighting began on Monday.

Oleksiy Honcharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament in Odesa, tells the BBC that he believes Russia is turning to bombardment in regions where its soldiers are unable to advance on land.

“We recognise that obviously Odesa is a strategic goal of this conflict”, he continues, “but the Russian army can’t go on land there, our army is holding position, so [Putin] started – everywhere in Ukraine – bombardments, simply striking civilian neighbourhoods”.

“Hundreds of foreign journalists are in Kyiv, and some are in Odesa, and they have seen that these assaults are in civilian areas with no military targets”.

Honcharenko claims that the Russian Navy bombarded Odesa from the sea.

“They are preparing a ground operation on Odesa, and we can see their ships crammed with men. I believe the plan is to strike Odesa from several directions”.

He claims, however, that if Russian forces undertake a ground assault there, they will suffer “serious losses”.

“I believe it will be suicide for them — they will fail”.

In our article, you can see where Russian soldiers have advanced and where they have not.