Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia will get a strong reply from Ukrainian forces for their cruel attack on a city that has been targeted by Russian drones or missiles almost every day this month.
Two missiles were launched from the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula and caused damage to buildings and gas and electricity lines in a city in the south. This was announced by the regional governor on TV.
Some people might not have gas and electricity because of strikes.
The blast was really powerful, especially the second one. Kiper said, “This missile can fly quickly from Crimea to its target. ”
A doctor and a rescuer died when another missile hit them while they were trying to help hurt people from the first attack. Ten people got very hurt, Kiper said.
People were hurrying to give blood at medical centers and lines were forming. Saturday was announced as a day for people in the area to show their sadness.
The attack destroyed a three-story building for fun and at least 10 private houses, said the military.
People were covered with foil blankets to keep them safe, and lots of rescuers worked hard to put out fires and clear away the debris.
Odesa is a large port in Ukraine. Russia has been attacking it because they stopped allowing Ukrainian grain to be safely shipped through the Black Sea.
“The recent attacks in Odesa by Russians show that they are not strong, and they are fighting against innocent Ukrainian people. This proves that they cannot even keep their own territory safe,” said Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff for the Ukrainian president, on Telegram.
Moscow says it did not try to hurt civilians in its attack on Ukraine, even though many civilians have been killed in Russian air strikes.
Ukraine is using big drones to attack Russia’s oil refineries before their election in March.
Ukraine used drones to attack a small refinery in Russia’s Kaluga region on Friday. The operation was carried out by the GUR military spy agency, according to a Ukrainian intelligence source.
Wednesday morning saw the second consecutive night that Russia attacked the southern port city of Odesa.
According to a representative of the Ukrainian military administration in Odesa, Ukraine’s air defences were thwarting a Russian attack.
A CNN crew in Odesa saw a consistent barrage coming from the air defence in the general area of the port. At least three loud fringe were also heard by the team.
Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa region’s military administration, urged people not to come close to windows.
Russian forces launched airstrikes on Odesa on Tuesday in retaliation for Kyiv’s attack Monday on the strategic and symbolic Crimean bridge linking the annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland.
The Black Sea port of Odesa experienced a rare attack, resulting in the death of at least three individuals and injuring 13 others.
Simultaneously, in the eastern Donetsk region, three civilians were also killed in overnight incidents. Moscow has yet to provide an official response regarding the alleged strikes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared that Ukraine’s counter-offensive was unsuccessful, causing significant losses for their army.
These statements coincided with Kyiv’s efforts to push back against Russian forces, leading to the recapture of seven settlements according to Ukrainian sources.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine emphasized progress and advancements in several areas during the counter-offensive, highlighting a positive movement forward.
The Ukrainians say they’ve liberated just over 3 sq km (one square mile) of territory over the last three days.
Spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Kovalyov, told the United News TV marathon that troops had advanced by distances ranging from 200m to 1.4km (0.9 miles).
Alluding to the situation in the south, Kovalyov added: “In the Berdyansk direction, hostilities continue in the vicinity of the village of Makarivka. Fighting is also under way in the vicinity of Novodanylivka and Novopokrovka.”
Russia launched fresh waves of missile attacks across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least 14 people in a strike on an apartment block in the eastern city of Dnipro.
A number of other cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, were also hit.
Much of Ukraine is now under an emergency blackout after missiles hit power infrastructure in several cities.
Earlier, the UK said it would send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to help the country’s defence.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Challengers, the British army’s main battle tank, would help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back”.
Russia responded by saying that providing more weapons to Ukraine would lead to intensified Russian operations and more civilian casualties.
Later on Saturday – a day when Ukrainians celebrate the Old (or Orthodox) New Year – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian attacks on civilian targets could be stopped only if Ukraine’s Western partners supplied necessary weapons.
“What is needed for this? Those weapons which are in the depots of our partners and which our soldiers are waiting for so much,” he said in his nightly video address, adding that his forces shot down more than 20 out of 30 Russian missiles fired at Ukraine.
The devastating strike in Dnipro hit the entrance of a nine-storey building, turning several floors into smouldering rubble, and leaving 73 injured, including 14 children, Ukrainian officials said, in what is likely to be the worst attack in months.
A sizeable crowd gathered to watch the rescue effort at the site of the strike, while others joined rescue workers in a desperate search for survivors. There were urgent calls, human chains of volunteers clearing rubble and torch beams piercing thick clouds of dust and smoke.
In his address, Mr Zelensky said debris clearance in Dnipro would continue all night: “We are fighting for every person, every life.” So far, 38 people have been rescued from the building, including six children, officials say.
There is no information yet on why the apartment block was the object of such devastation, as it is some distance from the nearest power facility.
On a day when Russia seemed intent, once again, on targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, this could have been one of the less accurate missiles in Russia’s arsenal, or something brought down by Ukraine’s air defences – although on the face of it, this seems a less likely explanation.
It has been two weeks since the last wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. Mr Zelensky said of the energy infrastructure facilities hit on Saturday that the most difficult situation was in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
Ukrainian state energy company Ukrenergo earlier said round-the-clock consumption limits had been set for all regions until midnight local time.
Officials, in the West and in Ukraine, had begun to wonder if Russia’s “energy war” might be coming to an end, due to a possible shortage of suitable missiles and the evident fact the strategy has yet to break Ukraine’s spirit.
Saturday’s attacks suggest Moscow still thinks it is a tactic worth pursuing.
Earlier, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said more than 120 missiles had been launched at civilian infrastructure.
The air raid lasted for close to five hours and the regional leader of the southern province of Odesa, Maksym Marchenko, spoke of a “massive missile attack on Ukraine”.
Brig Gen Oleksiy Hromov said in an operational update that the strikes had been targeted at energy infrastructure across the entire country.
Image caption, Rescue teams examine a damaged home in the Kyiv region
Two homes in Kyiv were damaged by debris from intercepted missiles, according to the city military administration. Mr Klitschko said 16 missiles were destroyed over the city by air defences.
In the southern region of Mykolaiv, Governor Vitaly Kim wrote that five missiles were intercepted by air defences, while Mayor Andriy Sadovy said several explosions had been reported in the western city of Lviv.
In the Odesa region Mr Marchenko said 21 missiles were shot down by the Ukrainian military. He added that missile fragments had hit a residential building but no casualties were reported.
And in a village in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said a missile had crashed into a resident’s home but did not explode. The BBC cannot independently verify the report.
Mr Podolyak said the strikes were “evil” and accused Moscow of seeking “to destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse”.
Image caption, This unexploded missile struck a house in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, according to presidential official Kyrylo Tymoshenko
Dozens of Russian attacks have pounded Ukraine in recent weeks, causing repeated power cuts across the country. Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said the latest strikes had damaged power generating facilities and said the situation was “difficult” in the Odesa and Kyiv regions.
The mayor of Lviv said on Thursday that 90% of his city was without power, while Mr Klitschko said that 40% of Kyiv had been left without power.
Power cuts were also reported in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Military Administration in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, said missiles fired at his city had been launched from Russian “ships and planes from the Black Sea”. Power in the city had been switched off as a “precaution”, he added.
Ukraine’s southern command had already issued a warning that Russian forces were preparing to launch up to 20 missiles from positions in the Black Sea.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in its missile strikes. However, President Vladimir Putin has recently admitted that Russian troops have been hitting Ukraine’s critical energy facilities.
The admission followed allegations from some international leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, that targeting energy facilities could amount to a war crime.
In one barrage earlier this month, Ukraine said it shot down 60 of more than 70 missiles fired by Russian forces.
The government in Kyiv has pleaded with Western leaders to provide it with additional air defences, and US President Joe Biden recently agreed to supply its Patriot system.
Thursday’s attack came just hours after the Kremlin rejected Ukraine’s suggestion that peace talks could begin in 2023.
The UK’s ambassador in Kyiv, Melinda Simmons, wrote on Twitter that the attacks proved “Russia does not want peace with Ukraine. Russia wants the subjugation of Ukraine”.
And Maia Sandu, president of neighbouring Moldova, condemned the strikes as “barbaric, unprovoked acts designed to bring about destruction and death”.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told the BBC that Russia would continue to launch attacks on civilian infrastructure for as long as it could.
“Continuing that thought, can they do this long?” he asked, “No, because there are not many missiles left.
“The defence industry is incapable of producing enough to provide that many missile strikes. This is another reason why they are now trying to find missile weapons in other countries of the world.”
Earlier this month, a senior US official told the Reuters news agency that Moscow had been forced to use decades-old ammunition with high failure rates in recent weeks.
And the UK’s ambassador to the UN said Russia was attempting to obtain more weapons from Iran, including hundreds of ballistic missiles.
Dame Barbara Woodward said the UK was also “almost certain that Russia is seeking to source weaponry from North Korea [and] other heavily sanctioned states, as their own stocks palpably dwindle”.
Operations have resumed at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesaafter Russia attacked energy facilities in the city with Iranian-made drones.
The port in the country’s south was shut after strikes on Saturday knocked out power to 1.5 million people and all non-critical infrastructure.
With sub-zero temperatures expected this week, Ukraine’s president said it could take days to restore power.
Under a UN-brokered agreement, Odesa is one of three ports used to ship grain.
The agreement, mediated by Turkey and the UN, allows Ukrainian products to be transported safely to the rest of the world. The deal has helped bring down soaring global food prices.
Although operations at Odesa port were briefly stopped on Sunday, Ukraine’s agriculture minister said grain exports would not be suspended.
In total, Russia launched 15 Iranian-made drones at the regions of Odesa andneighbouring Mykolaiv, 10 of which were shot down, Ukraine’s armed forces said.
“The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. “Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn’t take hours, but a few days.”
Thousands of people have made use of the region’s “points of invincibility” – facilities which supply electricity and warmth to residents during blackouts.
Images posted on social media showed dozens of people crowding round power points charging their phones.
The strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which intensified in mid-October, have left millions of people in nearly all regions of the country without power, as temperatures drop below zero.
A complete blackout across the entire country is a now realistic scenario, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told German television on Sunday.
Russia’s frequent attacks on Ukraine’s power grid have led to calls for the West to supply Kyiv with better air defence weapons.
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden told President Zelensky that Ukraine’s air defence was a priority for Washington.
The two spoke in a phone call before a meeting of G7 leaders on Monday, where further sanctions against Russia and Iran will be discussed.
The proposed measures would target Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, while EU foreign ministers are set to discuss a ninth package of sanctions which would place almost 200 more individuals and entities on its sanctions list.
East of Odesa, Ukrainian strikes killed two people in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol over the weekend, according to Moscow-installed local authorities.
The city has been under occupation since early March and is a major logistics hub for Russian forces in the south-east.
It is strategically located between Mariupol to the east, Kherson and the Dnipro River to the west, and Crimea to the south
South Ukraine has come under attack from both sides of the war, with Kyiv retaliating near Melitopol after Russia fired drones at Odesa.
The Ukrainian army claimed to have shot down 10 drones on Saturday, but an additional five struck electrical infrastructure, knocking out electricity for about 1.5 million people.
Later, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, a Ukrainian, claimed that a strike had been launched against the Russian-controlled city.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russia used Iranian-made drones in its drone strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
“The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn’t take hours, but a few days.”
Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with large waves of missile and drone strikes.
In Melitopol, pro-Moscow authorities said a missile attackhad killed two people and injured 10, while Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor, said scores of “invaders” had been killed.
“Air defence systems destroyed two missiles, and four reached their targets,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
He added that a “recreation centre” where people were dining had been destroyed in the Ukrainian attack with Himars missiles.
After surviving drone attacks and bombing in their first few months of life, four lion cubs and a black leopard cub from war-torn Ukraine have found refuge in a Polish zoo, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
The cubs were transferred to animal rescue organisations in Kyiv and Odesa after a crackdown on the exotic pet trade in Ukraine, and are now in Poznan zoo in western Poland awaiting onward travel.
IFAW said it had partnered with a sanctuary in the United States and one in Europe to care for the cubs, who were bred in captivity and cannot be released into the wild.
At least four people were injured in a Russian attack on the southern city of Odesa overnight, Ukrainian officials said.
In a Telegram post, Serhii Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa military administration, said a recreational center and several buildings had been destroyed and a fire was now raging in a 600-square-meter area.
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Russia fired on the city with Kh-22 anti-ship missiles from Tu-22M3 strategic bombers Bratchuk wrote. Russia has previously used anti-ship missiles against targets on land.
