Russia doesn’t have a path to Odessa and haven’t since March.
Putin has said He wants to link up with Transnistria and his puppets on state TV parrot this wet dream, but its not going to happen.
The Kherson Bridge is 3 Himars strikes away from being swiss cheese and there are 4 more bridges after that... and then he have to take a City on 1,000,000 people, which is 900,000 more people than any city he has take since March.
Russia doesn’t have the ability to take Odessa. They did back in February, but then they wastesd too much of their resources (and the element of surprise) on Kiev and Kharkiv.
Correct! Russkies are pathetic owners of Crimea and are going downhill from there. Ukie partisans have Rus stalemated. Thanks stupid Putin. Idiot!
Russia will bypass Odessa to the north and link up with proRussian elements in Transnistria, Thereby isolating and cutting off Odessa from the rest of Ukraine. The eventual inevitable negotiated settlement will resolve the Odessa issue at some later date. Meanwhile Russia will have taken control of the rest of the entire Ukrainian coastline.
Wishful thinking.