Russia launched a major aerial attack on southern Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian military said Monday, hitting Odesa port and destroying grain stores.
Russia “attacked the south of the country again”, the Defence Forces of the South of Ukraine said on the messaging platform Telegram.
Since July when Moscow pulled out of a UN-brokered deal allowing safe grain shipments via the Black Sea, Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine’s grain-exporting infrastructure in the southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.
Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian southern military command said Russia was apparently
“trying to test out the density of the air defence”.
“They understand that port infrastructure is a priority for our region, and that it is reliably protected.
However, that is why the attack that occurred tonight was both massive and by combined means,” she said on Telegram.
The Defence Forces of the South of Ukraine said Russia directed 19 drones and 2 Onyx supersonic missiles at Odesa, and fired 12 Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Ukrainian air force said the Kalibrs were launched from a ship and a submarine.
They claimed all 19 Shaheds and 11 Kalibrs were shot down.
However, Russia “hit the port infrastructure” in Odesa, which “suffered significant damage”, the southern defence forces said.
“Onyx missiles destroyed granaries. But people were not hurt,” they said.
Warehouses and a private house in the Odesa suburbs were damaged and caught fire, they added, “as a result of falling debris”.
Gumenyuk said one of the grain stores hit was empty.
Odesa regional governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram that one woman in Odesa, a civilian, was injured by shrapnel “in a blast wave” and was being treated in hospital.
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