The assault additionally got here two days after Russia promised retaliation for Kyiv’s maritime strike on the Crimean Bridge, which hyperlinks Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula which Moscow invaded and illegally annexed in 2014.
On Wednesday, native officers mentioned Russian forces hit Odessa’s loading infrastructure and grain and oil terminals, in an assault that lasted hours and got here in waves.
“One of the crucial horrible nights,” Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov wrote on Fb. “We don’t recall such a scale of assault for the reason that starting of the full-scale invasion.”
The barrage additionally focused different places throughout Ukraine, although Odessa bore the brunt of the assault, officers mentioned. Ukraine’s Air Drive mentioned in a Telegram put up that Moscow launched 30 cruise missiles and 32 self-destructing drones, of which 16 missiles and 23 drones have been intercepted.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa Army Administration, mentioned in a video posted on Telegram, that the assault was the “most hellish evening within the Odessa area” which “gave the impression to be endless.”
The top of Odessa’s regional administration, Oleh Kiper, mentioned that along with the strikes on port infrastructure, there was in depth harm all through town of Odessa, together with in residential quarters, vacationer services on the coast, an “industrial facility,” and two warehouses for tobacco and fireworks.
Officers reported no deaths, however mentioned various individuals have been injured, together with a 9-year-old boy.
Kyiv’s navy administration mentioned that air defenses shot down all drones that have been launched on the capital, and no casualties or damages have been reported. Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s navy administration, mentioned it was “a troublesome evening of air assaults for all Ukraine.”
