Thousands left without heat and water in Odesa after ‘massive’ overnight Russian strikes

Some 300,000 people have been left without running water and close to 200 apartment blocks without heating in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Thursday after Russia unleashed another night of “massive strikes”, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Thursday.

While nobody was killed in the attacks on Odesa, Serhiy Lysak, the head of the city’s Military Administration, said that Russia had once again deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and housing.

In addition, two people were injured in Russian overnight airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said, while four people, including a baby and a 4-year-old girl, were injured in attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the authorities reported. 

The Ukrainian Air Force said that its air defences had managed to shoot down or neutralise 16 missiles and 197 drones across the country overnight, with Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv also coming under attack.

Meanwhile, explosions were heard in the city of Ukhta, in Russia’s northern republic of Komi, after a Ukrainian drone strike there on Thursday, which was later confirmed by Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry. 

Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported that an oil refinery in the city belonging to energy giant Lukoil had been struck, while the Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia announced the closure of Ukhta Airport. 

Ukrainian drones also attacked warehouses at the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate near the southern Russian city of Volgograd, Exilenova+ added, with the authorities deciding to evacuate the local population, regional Governor Andrey Bocharov said on Thursday. 

Bocharov said drone debris landed on a Defence Ministry facility near the village of Kotluban, adding that while there had been no casualties, and no civilian infrastructure had been damaged, local residents would nonetheless be evacuated to ensure their safety from “explosions while the fire was being brought under control”.