This opinion was expressed in an interview with the Kyiv edition of UNN by Ukrainian military expert Mikhail Zhirokhov.
“The fact that the Russians will let through Western warships that will accompany transport from Odessa is from the realm of science fiction. Even if we manage to reach an agreement, the Russian Federation will not give up so easily, there will be provocations, and then an armed clash cannot be avoided. I think that not a single NATO or European country will agree to this, since the West directly says that it wants to avoid direct confrontation with Russia. If the political rhetoric changes, then we can talk about unblocking the ports of Ukraine,” the expert noted.
Zhirokhov believes that the initiative proposed by Lithuania, a country that does not have its own navy, is purely political in nature. According to him, there is no practical implementation of this plan, and in the current state of affairs it cannot be.
Recall, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that it is necessary to create a naval coalition to unblock Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea.
Also, the Western press recently discussed the possibility of the United States transferring anti-ship missiles to Ukraine for independent unblocking of ports by striking ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation. Odessa social activist Vyacheslav Azarov expressed in this regard the fear that hostilities could move to the Odessa region not after the end of the operation in Donbass, but in parallel with it, which leads to the risk of destroying the port infrastructure of Greater Odessa.