Russia has launched a huge air bombardment on the Ukrainian port of Odesa for the second night in a row, according to Officials.
The attacks on Odesa, one of Ukraine’s biggest grain export ports, came after Russia promised reprisal for a bombing on a bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula on Monday, which Moscow blamed on Ukraine.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had hit military targets in two Ukrainian port cities overnight as “a mass revenge strike” in response to the attack on the Crimean Bridge.
Shortly after the bridge was hit on Monday, Moscow withdrew from a year-old Black Sea grain agreement that allowed for the safe exports of Ukraine’s grain, a move the United Nations said risked creating hunger around the world.
In a voice message on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for (They’re) the Odesa military government, stated the strike was “very powerful, truly massive.”
Most of Ukraine was under air raid alerts on and off starting soon after midnight on Wednesday, with Russia striking other places, including a drone attack on Kyiv.
“A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine, especially in the south, in Odesa,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv’s city military administration, said on the Telegram channel.
He stated that Kyiv had been assaulted and that preliminary information indicated that there was some damage or casualties.
Russia had no quick comment on the attacks. According to pro-Kremlin military bloggers, Moscow is attacking Odesa and other regions with a combination of missiles and drones.
According to the RBC-Ukraine news agency, there was also an attack on Crimea, with explosions heard at the Krynychky military training grounds.
