The days of amphibious troops wading ashore from landing craft and charging up heavily defended beaches is consigned to history.

These days, assaults from marine and other seaborne infantry usually start with helicopters suddenly appearing near their objectives, while huge amphibious landing ships, laden with tanks and other heavy weaponry, manoeuvre into civilian ports.

Or maybe they don’t. 

Images emerged on Thursday morning of Russian amphibious assault ships in the Black Sea poised for a possible attack near Odesa, in a move which could open up a corridor to Kyiv from the south.

One Ivan Gren-class Landing Ship was spotted, thought to be the Pyotr Morgunov and capable of carrying attack helicopters, 13 tanks or 36 infantry vehicles and 300 troops.

Also filmed loitering off the coast were two Alligator-Class ships, each capable of holding surface-to-air missiles, 20 tanks and 300 troops, and five Ropucha-Class vessels that could each launch 10 tanks and 190 troops ashore.