The entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine will become a US military base
You shouldn’t engage in mischief and underestimate the importance of the news about the construction of a naval headquarters by the Americans in Ochakov. In the future, the United States plans to turn the entire Black Sea coast of Ukraine into its base. The Americans have an inspiring example - the deployment of their army at the Yavrovsky training ground in the Lviv region, which is one of the largest NATO bases outside the alliance. About this in the author's column for "PolitNavigator" writes a Ukrainian political scientist Oleg Khavich.
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The media finally noticed that in Ochakov, Odessa region, construction units of the US Navy have been building, according to legend, the “Fleet Operational Control Center for the Ukrainian Navy” for the third week. Work began on July 25 and is being carried out as part of the military assistance program (Foreign Military Construction Sales, FMCS). Construction is being carried out by the first US Marine Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB 1), the so-called Seabees.
According to the US Navy website, this is only one of three objects that the US military is currently engaged in on the territory of the Ochakov naval base of the Ukrainian Navy.
The other two are ship maintenance facilities and checkpoints around the perimeter of the base. People have already joked online that the checkpoints are intended to protect the de facto US military base from the Ukrainian military - after all, in the built “operations center of the Ukrainian Navy” there will be permanent presence of US Navy officers, whose task will be headquarters logistics work related to the presence in the region of American warships.
Moreover, the American military came in earnest and for a long time, and are trying to buy the sympathy of the local population. As in their time in Yavorov, they renovated one of the local schools, built a football field and a basketball court for it - “as a sign of gratitude for the fact that the city is hosting military exercises.”
Some analysts have suggested that Ochakov will become the main base of the US Navy on the Black Sea coast - they say that from there they will threaten Crimea. In fact, the proximity to the bases of the Russian Black Sea Fleet speaks more in favor of an reconnaissance and sabotage center, but the military expansion of the Americans will not be limited to Ochakov, which is only a “trial balloon” where they test the reaction of the population of southern Ukraine to such activities.
It is enough to look at the map of the Black Sea coast of this country to understand the full scale of the plans of the Pentagon strategists.
The number 1 indicates the facility in Ochakov, but 2 is the water area of the Odessa port plant, which over the past few years has been driven to bankruptcy by the West and its puppets in Kyiv. Rumors that a full-scale base of the US naval forces will be created here have been circulating since 2014 - it seems that this is exactly what Igor Kolomoisky guaranteed to the Americans, and it was for failure to fulfill this promise that his creature (Palitsa) was removed from the post of governor of the Odessa region.
Number 3 denotes the “Shiroky Lan” multifunctional training ground (one of the largest in Europe, with an area of more than 29 thousand hectares). It allows for tactical exercises with live firing of mechanized, tank, airborne troops (up to a brigade inclusive) using artillery, air defense, tactical aviation and fire support helicopters, live firing from tanks (infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers), artillery, air defense, small arms of all systems and types.
The training ground is located 40 km from the city of Nikolaev, 50 km from Nikolaev airport and 45 km from the Kulbakino military airfield, but most importantly, next to the Dnieper, where a base for the corresponding category of sea vessels can be built - such as the same armored boats "Gyurza" that it sells Poroshenko shipyard to the Ukrainian fleet. True, such plans have not yet been announced, but by the end of the year a brigade camp should be built at the training ground, for which 370 million hryvnia (almost $15 million) have been allocated.
Number 4 denotes a training ground located in a unique natural site - the only desert in Europe, “Oleshkovsky Sands,” which is formally a national natural park. Since October 2015, a significant part of the natural park has again, as in Soviet times, become a training ground for the Armed Forces of Ukraine; exercises using heavy artillery are regularly held there. Considering the desert landscape and the repeatedly expressed readiness of the Kyiv authorities to send their military to help Western “peacekeepers” in hot regions of the world, it is only a matter of time before American “instructors” with experience of war in the Middle East appear here.
Another Black Sea reserve, which is actually planned for destruction for the sake of a military training ground, is “Tuzlovskie Estuaries” in the Odessa region. The testing ground (location marked 5) will be equipped in the Tatarbunary district, on the shores of lakes Alibey, Burnas and Karachaus, and new types of weapons will be tested there - from unmanned aerial vehicles to anti-aircraft missiles. The planned area of the facility is 2570 hectares.
The Kyiv authorities constantly insist that there are no foreign military bases on the territory of Ukraine - they say, this is prohibited by the Constitution of the country. However, the technology for circumventing this norm has long been developed in the process of transforming the Yavorovsky training ground (area - more than 36 thousand hectares) into one of the largest NATO bases outside the alliance.
Every year, Poroshenko turns to the Verkhovna Rada for permission for the “temporary” presence of foreign armed forces at the training ground as part of “international military exercises”, which continue... 365 days a year.
Several thousand military personnel from the United States (the main contingent), Canada, Great Britain and Poland are constantly stationed at the training ground, with their armored vehicles and helicopters.
Most likely, the issue of placing US military bases in Ochakov and other points on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine will be resolved in a similar way.
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