Russia Launches Intensive Night Attacks On Ukraine, Hits Odessa For Second Night

2023-07-19 07:12:33

KIEV (AP) — Russia carried out an intense round of airstrikes overnight with drones and missiles that struck targets across Ukraine and attacked the southern port of Odessa for the second night in a row, Ukrainian authorities said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a fire at a military installation in Russian-annexed Crimea led to the closure of a major highway and the evacuation of civilians from four towns, according to Sergey Aksyonov, Russia’s appointed administrator for the region, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

He did not specify the cause of the fire in the Kirovsky district, which occurred two days following an attack on a bridge connecting Russia to the peninsula that the Kremlin has blamed on Ukraine.

“A difficult night of airstrikes for the whole of Ukraine,” Serhii Popko, head of the kyiv Military Administration, said in a statement on Telegram.

The attacks were especially heavy in Odessa for the second night in a row, it added.

Odessa regional governor Oleh Kiper said details of the damage and possible casualties following Russia’s “powerful” attack on the region would be released later.

Russia also attacked kyiv with Iranian-made Shahed drones, though “to no avail,” Popko said. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted all drones targeting the capital and a preliminary investigation indicated that there were no casualties.

In Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, Russian drone strikes damaged infrastructure and private homes, according to regional governor Vitalii Bunechko. No casualties were recorded.

Authorities in the Poltava and Kirovohradskyi regions of Ukraine also reported attacks.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the army had intercepted 13 of 16 Kalibr cruise missiles, 23 of 32 Shahed drones and one Kh-59 missile.

According to the report, Russia also fired 8 Kh-22 cruise missiles and 6 high-precision Onik missiles, which were aimed at infrastructure in the Odessa region.

The latest barrage came the day following what the Russian Defense Ministry described as a “retaliatory strike” once morest Ukrainian military installations near Odessa and the coastal city of Mykolaiv with sea-launched precision weapons.

Russia accuses Ukraine of the July 17 attack on the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia with Crimea and is a major civilian and military supply route.

Ukraine’s main security agency appeared to tacitly admit to its involvement in the July 17 attack, though it stopped short of direct blame, as has happened in previous attacks on the bridge.

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