Key takeaways:
- Odesa officials said at least three people were killed and three wounded in a fifth straight day of Russian drone and missile attacks on the region.
- Ukraine’s drone force commander said Kyiv hit 17 Russian oil tankers, two gas tankers and one tugboat in the Black Sea.
- Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv and said she would announce initiatives to integrate EU and Ukrainian defence industries.
Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least three people in Odesa as Moscow and Kyiv escalated attacks around the Black Sea, a critical corridor for grain, fuel and military logistics.
Odesa region Governor Oleh Kiper said Wednesday that Russia had launched a “massive” overnight attack on the southern region, marking the fifth straight day of strikes. He said civilian, industrial and port infrastructure had been hit, accusing Russia on Telegram of deliberately targeting civilians as well as facilities tied to the region’s economy.
Residents were killed and injured when a Russian missile struck a multi-storey residential building, Kiper said. He added that a non-residential building and a gas pipeline were also hit. Odesa’s military administrator, Serhiy Lysak, said at least three people were killed and three others wounded in the strikes.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces deliberately targeted port infrastructure in Odesa and Chornomorsk. It said the sites were used for unloading petroleum, oil and lubricants, and also claimed Russian forces struck facilities involved in storing fuel, assembling drones, manufacturing military hardware and transporting cargo.
The attacks are part of a recent intensification of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s deepwater Black Sea ports in the wider Odesa area. Those ports handle much of Ukraine’s grain and other cargo and remain vital to the country’s wartime economy.
Ukraine, meanwhile, said it had carried out drone strikes on Russian vessels in the Black Sea. Kyiv’s drone force commander, Robert Brovdi, said Ukrainian forces hit 17 Russian oil tankers, two gas tankers and one tugboat. He also claimed earlier this week that 116 Russian vessels had been “hunted down” over a nine-day period.
The Black Sea attacks follow intensive Ukrainian strikes on Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, which lies between Crimea, Ukraine’s eastern coastline and Russia. Reuters reported that the attacks have forced Russia, the world’s top grain exporter, to restrict shipping in the Sea of Azov, a route that handles about a quarter of its grain exports.
Moscow said Tuesday it was preparing to redirect exports after waves of attacks on Russian shipping. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the Ukrainian attacks on shipping “terrorism”.
The military escalation unfolded as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv for talks on closer defence cooperation between Ukraine and the European Union. Writing on social media, she called the visit a “special moment” and said it was her 11th trip to Ukraine since the war began.
“I will announce new initiatives to integrate our defence industries. So we can produce more, and faster,” von der Leyen wrote on X, alongside footage of her arrival in the Ukrainian capital.
Ukraine is also navigating a political shake-up. The BBC reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko after less than a year in the post. A motion accepting her resignation passed in Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday, despite some lawmakers questioning whether the reason for the change had been explained. Serhiy Koretskyi, head of the state oil and gas firm Naftogaz, is seen as a likely successor, with parliament set to vote on the appointment Thursday.
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