A Russian ballistic missile strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa Friday night has killed at least eight people and injured 27 others, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported Saturday.
According to local Ukrainian authorities, the attack — coming one week after much of Odesa was left without power, heat, and water after a “severe” aerial assault — targeted port infrastructure facilities and damaged nearby civilian vehicles.
“Some of the injured were on a bus that was at the epicentre of the shelling. Trucks caught fire in the parking lot, and cars were also damaged,” the State Emergency Service said.
Following the strike, Oleh Kiper, head of Odesa’s regional administration, reported that medical teams and first responders had been dispatched, but were having their work complicated by “ongoing air raid alerts”.
Elsewhere in the country, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said a “massive” drone attack had struck the southern Mykolayiv region, damaging civilian infrastructure and vehicles, though no casualties were reported.
Odesa, Ukraine’s largest seaport and one of the biggest in the wider Black Sea region, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks throughout the war.
Last week, civilian, energy, and industrial infrastructure in Odesa suffered extensive damage after what the regional administration labelled “one of the enemy’s most severe airstrikes”, leaving many areas of the city without power and water.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has not commented on the attack.
Speaking hours before the attack at his annual Direct Line call-in show, Vladimir Putin said Russia was yet to “see Ukraine’s readiness for peace”.
“[Russia] is ready for negotiations and for ending the conflict via peaceful means,” Putin said, while responding to a question about progress in US-led negotiations, adding that it was up to Russia’s “Western opponents” to end the war.
