The strategically important Black Sea city of Odesa has been in the center of intensified Russian attacks. The port city is on the front line of Ukraine's anti-drone defense operations. DW's Jan-Philipp Scholz accompanied a Ukrainian Navy ship on patrol.
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00:00We are somewhere in the Black Sea, about 50 nautical miles off the coast of Odessa.
00:07Dennis is the commander of the ship's anti-drone unit.
00:11This makes him the last line of defense before the port city.
00:15The drones he doesn't shoot down here could kill residents in Odessa just a few minutes
00:20later.
00:22I am from Odessa myself and we do everything possible so that the
00:29drones don't hit my home city.
00:32But sometimes they fly too high and we just cannot shoot them down.
00:37When I later hear that the drone hit my hometown, I really feel ashamed.
00:45I am shown some images that are only a few weeks old.
00:49Here the anti-drone unit shoots down a Russian Shahed drone.
00:56The ship's captain tells me that the drones usually take off from the occupied Crimean
01:00peninsula or from the Russian side of the Black Sea.
01:04After that, two hours of flying and they arrive to our zone of responsibility.
01:11Like every night.
01:14They send drones to Odessa every night.
01:18At the end of March, the US announced that it had negotiated a temporary ceasefire for
01:23the Black Sea region.
01:25But since then, there has been confusion about almost every aspect of the deal.
01:30Not even its time span seems to be clear.
01:34All the sailors aboard this ship tell me that little has changed for them since the United
01:39States announced the supposed maritime ceasefire.
01:43They have not seen any reduction in Russian attacks over the sea.
01:49Many military observers say that Ukraine has recently gained the upper hand in the Black
01:54Sea.
01:55Still, naval expert Andrei Ryzenko tells us a functioning ceasefire would have many advantages
02:00for the country.
02:02The benefits are very obvious.
02:04First one, it will be open sea lines of communication and it will be supporting economically Ukraine.
02:10And secondly, a security issue, because all these Kamikaze drones, all these missiles flying
02:16in Ukraine, they're killing people, they're killing infrastructure.
02:20Back on the Black Sea, Captain Mike agrees with his assessment, but he says it doesn't go
02:25far enough.
02:27We don't need a ceasefire, we need a troop piece.
02:33Ceasefire, they can use that pause to increase their troops, increase their ships.
02:39We need a piece, a real piece.
02:42That's what I mean.
02:45Everyone on board understands that this is not a realistic option at the moment.
02:49And the ship's anti-drone unit will probably have to fend off many more attacks over the
02:55Black Sea.