A frigid, damp wind swept across the jetty of a port in Ukraine’s Odesa region. Three masked men stood guard, lingering beside an anti-aircraft battery whose two guns, concealed beneath the tarp of a military truck, pointed out to sea. At their feet, the frozen corpse of a seagull slowly vanished under snowflakes blown almost horizontally by the forceful wind. It was 10 pm, and yet another air raid alert had just sounded after a swarm of long-range Shahed-type drones was detected coming from Russian-occupied Crimea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military fleet has so far failed to enforce a maritime blockade strangling Ukraine’s economy. The campaign has instead continued from the air, with over 500 airstrikes targeting Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea and even more striking the energy infrastructure in the Odesa region, which has also been experiencing an exceptionally cold winter.
“Attacks have been intensifying since December,” recounted Serhiy, commander of the anti-aircraft battery. “Everything falls here. Ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, Shahed drones. Look at these holes in the wall… And that seagull was killed by a shockwave,” continued the officer, a veteran of 30 years who, like most of the military personnel quoted in this article, was not authorized to give his last name.
A sign warns of the danger posed by mines along the coastline in the Odesa region, Ukraine, on January 17, 2026. JEDRZEJ NOWICKI FOR LE MONDE
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