Sawt Falasteen - Key Ukraine naval base unbowed despite Russian onslaught

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.

- 'False pretext' -

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed the naval base was controlled by Americans and attacked it.

Heavy bombardments killed 24 soldiers on the first day of the invasion. An amphibious assault followed.

"They organised landing operations on our coast. But our army and special forces stopped them," Vaskov said.

In September, a missile flattened a grain silo.

"The point was to destroy our infrastructure, to destroy the grain depot used by our farmers," Vaskov said.

"They used a false pretext by saying that (American rocket launchers) HIMARS and other weapons were stored there" to conduct strikes, he said.

But the grain depot was "100 percent civilian, there wasn't even one soldier there," the deputy mayor said.

After another bombardment in October, Russia said it was targeting a Ukrainian special services training centre.

Moscow later accused those special services, "under the leadership of British specialists", of being behind an attack on its Black Sea Fleet in November.

Ukraine and the UK signed an agreement to build missile boats and infrastructure there in 2020.

- The battle for Kinburn -

Russians are able to strike Ochakiv from their positions on the Kinburn spit -- a peninsula they seized in June -- just 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles) away across the Dnipro river.

Regaining Kinburn would be a major gain for Ukraine and ensure a degree of safety for Ochakiv.

"Control of Kinburn would allow Ukrainian forces to reduce Russian strikes... and conduct potential operations" in the southern Kherson region, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

And Ukraine could consolidate its gains after retaking the right bank of the river last month.

With this goal in mind, Ukrainians are "using artillery and special forces. The goal is to clean up the place," an official at Ochakiv's naval base said on condition of anonymity.

The Ukrainian army announced a "military operation" in the Kinburn peninsula in November, but details are scarce.

"We are recovering full control over the (Mykolaiv) region. There are only three settlements left on the Kinburn Spit before we are at peace again," Mykolaiv governor Vitaliy Kim said.

Russian forces denied the claims, and said they still controlled the peninsula.

And to keep it that way, they have been striking Ochakiv.

At the market, 72-year-old Volodymyr Kojevnykov hoped the "Russians are kicked out of the (Kinburn) Spit for these strikes to stop."

S.Abdullah--SF-PST