A series of explosions were heard Sunday morning in Odessa, Ukraine’s main port, on the Black Sea, in the south-west of the country, noted an AFP journalist.
The explosions, which occurred around 6:00 a.m., sent up at least three columns of black smoke and visible flames, apparently in an industrial area.
A downtown hotel worker said she heard a plane, but a soldier near the scene of one of the strikes said it was a rocket or missile.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, wrote on his Telegram account: ‘Odessa was attacked from the air. Fires have been reported in some areas. Part of the missiles were shot down by air defense. It is recommended to close the windows’.
This historic city has a strategic character: with the largest port in the country, it provides access to the Black Sea to the rest of Ukraine.
The entire eastern coast, from the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, to the separatist pro-Russian republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass region, is occupied by Russian forces, except for a part from the city of Mariupol, where they encountered resistance from the Ukrainian army.
/ ATS