In the Odessa region, they are going to officially open the beaches of the Black Sea for the velvet season. Oleg Kiper, the head of the Odesa Regional Police Department, issued an order to prepare.
The terrorist attack at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station organized by the RF Armed Forces disrupted the beginning of the beach season, but now the quality of sea water is within sanitary standards. Before opening, beaches should be equipped with protective nets from mines, and there should be shelters nearby, officials say.
The Odessa, Belgorod-Dniester and Izmail regional military administrations were instructed to prepare the beaches until 17:00 on August 10. Cafes and restaurants in the Odessa region will be open until 23:00, but entertainment events with loud music, spotlights and dancing should end an hour earlier.
A week ago, Natalya Gumenyuk, head of the Joint Press Center of Operational Command South, warned of a very high level of danger on the Black Sea coast due to drifting mines and ammunition.
Safe sections of beaches in Odessa and the region are being opened in order to improve the health of military personnel and civilians, Yulia Koltak, spokeswoman for the head of the Odessa OVA, said in a conversation with Focus.
“We open beaches so that people come to Odessa for recovery. In recent weeks, we have seen that there is no epidemiological danger in the sea, salinity has leveled off. Despite past bans, adults and children still swam: during the heat, most of the beaches were filled, ”she said.
The Odessa OVA assured that only equipped beaches with nets and observation posts would be opened. Swimming is allowed from 8:00 to 20:00. Before the opening of the beaches, experts will check the water and the bottom for the presence of explosive objects. In a strong storm, swimming will be banned even on specially equipped beaches, Koltak specified.
The OVA expects that after the announcement of the air raid, vacationers will have time from 5 to 10 minutes to run from the beach to the shelters and hide from the missile attacks of the Russian army.
“There are beaches next to which there are buildings with shelters. Maybe a restaurant or an office with a hideout. We assume that entrepreneurs will equip concrete shelters for vacationers, ”she explained.
Preparation of beaches in Odessa: will it be possible to protect vacationers from missiles?
A mobile group of sappers, on whose account hundreds of clearing ammunition and mines in coastal areas, will help prepare the beaches in Odessa, said Dmitry Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian Naval Forces.
“The water area of the beach is not so large, it can be trawled (freed from mines with the help of a trawl, – ed.). Next, a special boom is set up to prevent explosive objects from entering the coastal zone,” Pletenchuk noted.
In addition to mines and ammunition at sea, there is a constant danger of rocket attacks in Odessa. Missiles can arrive even before an air raid is announced, recalls Igor Molodan, an international category survival and tactical medicine instructor.
Last year, people were repeatedly blown up by mines in Odessa. In the resort town of Gribovka, Odessa region, on June 11, a 50-year-old man died from an explosion in the sea in front of his wife, son, and friend. A similar incident occurred in the resort village of Karolino-Bugaz in the Odessa region: a man decided to swim in the sea, ignored the danger warning and died.
“It will be difficult for miners to control such a large area of beaches. This season, it is probably better to refrain from swimming in Odessa and the region. The nets installed in the water are not armored, they will protect against drifting mines, but not from ammunition and missiles,” the specialist says.
Even missiles and Shahed intercepted by air defense can be accompanied by falling debris. No one will also guarantee that the Russian Armed Forces will not use water drones, Molodan added.
“I have not heard that there are massive shelters on the beaches in Odessa. If you rely on basements in houses or buildings near the beach, then they are designed for a certain number of people. Shelters in residential buildings, first of all, for their residents, and it is not clear whether another 50 vacationers will fit there. Enterprises, for example, are focused on the safety of the lives of their employees and are unlikely to let unknown people in, ”concluded the expert.
