“Every main road junction now has tank traps laid across them [and] there are military on the streets,” he said.
“I sat and had coffee with two soldiers earlier this afternoon. One of them spoke excellent English, but they did not want to be recorded – videos or photographs.
“They are ready. They are willing to fight as long as it takes. They know it will likely become guerrilla warfare, which gives the defenders the advantage.”
Pictured: Odessa is 35 miles to the east of Ukraine’s border with Moldova, which yesterday applied to join the European Union in another indication of the fear across Eastern Europe about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions.
Odessa is in the south-west of Ukraine, on the Black Sea. Other cities in the south of the country – most notably Mariupol, which is about 380 miles east of Odessa – have suffered devastating attacks in recent days.
“We know the Black Sea city of Khersob has been taken and Mariupol is under massive, indiscriminate artillery and missile bombardment,” said Mr Wood.
He said the Russians’ aim in the south “is to make a land corridor from Crimea to Odessa, with landings also coming from the sea.
“We know a Russian navy ship with 600 crew and soldiers on board was sunk near Odessa port [on Wednesday], on its way to attack the port.”
Pictured: A damaged residential building in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, which has now been under aerial attack from Russian forces for more than a week.
Communication is becoming increasingly patchy for Mr Wood and his wife.
“Our Internet has gone down and we only have intermittent WiFi,” he said.
Mr Wood has also asked all people in Guernsey to understand the reasons for the conflict in Ukraine.
“What is discouraging is seeing a number of cretinous Guernsey residents blaming the West, saying [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is only protecting his country, Ukraine invited the Russians in, the Ukrainian army are shelling their own cities,” he said.
“I speak daily to people in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Mariupol, Mykolaiev and of course many in Odessa. No one invited this sociopath into our country.”
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, yesterday made a public appeal to President Putin to talk to him about the crisis.
Zelenskyy to Putin: “Please leave our land. If you don’t want to leave now, sit down at the table of negotiations. I am free. Sit down, but not 30 meters away, like with Macron or Scholz. I’m your neighbor … I don’t bite … Sit down with me and talk. What are you afraid of?” pic.twitter.com/POc3HqXmiK
— The Recount (@therecount) March 3, 2022
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