Russian forces targeted Odessa and thwarted a Ukrainian attack on 4 fronts
Russian forces carried out a new wave of overnight attacks on the Black Sea port of Odessa on Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials.
“Odessa: another night attack of the monsters,” Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odessa region, wrote on Telegram.
“Unfortunately, a civilian was killed,” he added.
He said that preliminary information showed that 14 people were taken to hospital for treatment, including three children.
Russia has bombed Odessa and other Ukrainian food export facilities almost daily over the past week after Moscow withdrew from the UN-brokered Trans-Black Sea grain export deal allowing safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported on Telegram that Russia carried out an attack with Onyx high-precision missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles on Odessa after midnight.
However, the scope of the attack isn’t yet known.
From the Russian side, they described the attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian attack on the bridge linking Russia and Crimea.
In addition, the sub-units of the Russian Southern Forces Group, thwarted the attacks of the Ukrainian forces, Sunday, on four fronts, and destroyed a large number of their equipment.
Vadim Astafiev, a spokesman for the Russian southern forces, said, in an interview with the Russian Sputnik news agency that the units of the Russian forces’ grouping of the south succeeded in repelling offensive groups of the Ukrainian armed forces on the axes of Lysychansk, Solidar-Artymovsk, Alexander Kalinovsk and Marinesk, noting that the fire support of the Ukrainian offensive groups was covered by artillery and tanks from closed firing positions.
Astafiev explained that the movement of the attacking Ukrainian groups was detected in a timely manner by the reconnaissance units of the Southern Group.
He added, “Thanks to this, the enemy’s armored vehicles were destroyed before they reached the contact line and the attack began”.
He also indicated that the air force of the group and the crew of the anti-tank missile system in the third Corps hit and destroyed three enemy tanks in the areas of Bogdanovka and Clichy.
In addition, according to Astafiev, the artillery of the South group, during an artillery sparring, destroyed a D30 howitzer of the Ukrainian forces, and a 120 mm mortar in the Verkhnekaminsky area, and in the Ismailovka area a Masta B howitzer.
The attack was carried out hours before a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko, a close Moscow ally.
The two leaders will meet Sunday in St. Petersburg and discuss, in particular, the strategic partnership and alliance between Moscow and Minsk, according to a statement published by the Kremlin on Friday.
