Mines, sandbags and roadblocks: Odesa fortifies for Russian war

Capturing Ukraine’s third-largest city would effectively cut the rest of the country off from the Black Sea

Odesa, Ukraine – On a sandy beach in Odesa, Ukraine’s third-largest city and biggest port, dozens of men fill bags with sand and pile them onto a van to be transferred to the front lines for the urban battle they fear is coming soon.

Qazet.az reports that long stretches of the shoreline, meanwhile, have been laid with landmines to delay any beach landing amid reports that a large Russian amphibious fleet is now approaching the city on the Black Sea coast from the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.