Russia targets Ukraine Black Sea port of Odesa for second night
Ukrainian officials described Russia’s attack on Odesa as ‘powerful’ (Jae C Hong/AP)
Russia launched an intense series of night-time air attacks sending drones and missiles towards locations across Ukraine, and targeting the southern port city of Odesa for a second night in a row, Ukrainian officials have said.
Meanwhile, Russian emergency officials in Crimea said that more than 2,200 people were evacuated from four villages because of a fire at a military facility.
The blaze also caused the closure of a main arterial road, according to Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of the region, which was annexed in 2014.
He did not specific a cause for the fire at the facility in Kirovsky district, which came two days after an attack on a bridge linking Russia to the peninsula which the Kremlin has blamed on Ukraine.
“A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine,” said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, in a statement on Telegram.
Ukrainian authorities reported more drones and missiles sent against more parts of Ukraine than in recent days.
Mr Popko said the attacks had been especially fierce in Odesa for a second consecutive night.
Odesa’s regional governor Oleh Kiper said the details of damage and possible casualties following Russia’s “powerful” attack in the region would be provided later.
Russia also attacked Kyiv with Iranian-made Shahed drones but with “no result”, Mr Popko said. Ukrainian air defence intercepted all the drones aimed at the capital and a preliminary investigation showed there were no casualties.
In Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, Russian drone attacks damaged some infrastructure and private homes, according to regional governor Vitalii Bunechko. No casualties were reported.
Officials in the Ukrainian regions of Poltava and Kirovohradskyi also reported attacks.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that the military had intercepted 13 out of 16 Kalibr cruise missiles, 23 out of 32 fired Shahed-drones, and one Kh-59 missile.
According to the report, Russia also fired eight cruise missiles Kh-22 and six high-precision Oniks missiles, with the Oniks missiles directed at infrastructure in the Odesa region.
The latest barrage came a day after Russia carried out what Moscow’s defence ministry described as a “strike of retribution” on Ukrainian military facilities near Odesa and the coastal city of Mykolaiv, using sea-launched precision weapons.
Russia blames Ukraine for a July 17 strike on the Kerch Bridge, which links Russia with the Crimea, and is a key artery for military and civilian supplies.
Ukraine’s top security agency appeared tacitly to admit to a role in the July 17 attack, but stopped short of directly claiming responsibility, echoing their responses after previous similar attacks on the Kerch Bridge.
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