The assault also came two days after Russia promised retaliation for Kyiv’s maritime strike on the Crimean Bridge, which links Russia to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula which Moscow invaded and illegally annexed in 2014.
On Wednesday, local officials said Russian forces hit Odessa’s loading infrastructure and grain and oil terminals, in an attack that lasted hours and came in waves.
“One of the most horrible nights,” Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov wrote on Facebook. “We do not recall such a scale of attack since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”
The barrage also targeted other locations across Ukraine, though Odessa bore the brunt of the attack, officials said. Ukraine’s Air Force said in a Telegram post that Moscow launched 30 cruise missiles and 32 self-destructing drones, of which 16 missiles and 23 drones were intercepted.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa Military Administration, said in a video posted on Telegram, that the attack was the “most hellish night in the Odessa region” which “seemed to be never-ending.”
The head of Odessa’s regional administration, Oleh Kiper, said that in addition to the strikes on port infrastructure, there was extensive damage throughout the city of Odessa, including in residential quarters, tourist facilities on the coast, an “industrial facility,” and two warehouses for tobacco and fireworks.
Officials reported no deaths, but said a number of people were injured, including a 9-year-old boy.
Kyiv’s military administration said that air defenses shot down all drones that were launched at the capital, and no casualties or damages were reported. Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said it was “a difficult night of air attacks for all Ukraine.”
