Perhaps the same thing with the amphibious troops that were sitting in ships off Odesa. A Russian naval infantryman was captured near Mariupol.
It may be that the Russian ships that were off the coast of Odesa in anticipation of an amphibious landing later seen in port in Crimea, off-loaded their troops which were added to the land forces.
thread from the Conflict Intelligence Team:
https://twitter.com/CITeam_en/status/1505932684547219457
1. Russian military ships off the coast of Odesa are shelling the city.
Fears of a naval landing have persisted since before the invasion, the plans seen in both Western maps and revealed Russian ones.
But does Russia still have the landing force?
2.Per Ukrainian publication @Graty_me, the Crimea-based 810th Naval Infantry Brigade did conduct a minor landing near Kherson, after which many servicemen refused to go into Ukraine.
Those refusals were confirmed by a prisoner from the unit.
3. Interestingly, he was taken prisoner near Mariupol.
This, together with videos and photographs of marine-type APCs in the area, suggests that the Crimea marines are indeed fighting on land in Ukraine.
4. Other Russian marine units like the 155th Brigade from Vladivostok and 336th Brigade from Kaliningrad were also involved in the pre-invasion build-up, but captured papers and a killed serviceman indicate they are also fighting on land in Ukraine.
5. Thus, a Russian naval landing requires either transferring other Naval Infantry brigades to the border, pulling out the ones battered in the current fighting, or assembling a ragtag invasion force from various smaller and leftover units.
6. Even if Russia had the forces for a naval landing, analysts and Odesa’s authorities believe that it is only viable as part of a combined operation when/if a Russian land force reaches Odesa (which is a prospect that is growing more distant)
7. Given all of the above, we assess the prospects of a naval landing in Odesa highly unlikely, even though not impossible.
We will still continue monitoring this situation closely.
I’ll add this: A map captured from a Russian officer (with OCR’d labels added), it looks like there was an amphibious landing planned for Ochakov southeast of Odesa that didn’t happen
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOZBOp8XsBIld-0?format=jpg&name=4096x4096