Video
The hotel, considered a landmark in the port of Odessa, was unoccupied, according to regional officials. Photo credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, via Portal
Russia attacked Odessa with missiles and drones on Monday. This was Moscow’s first major attack on the Ukrainian city’s port since the country began testing a new route for transporting grain from the Black Sea.
Russia fired 19 drones and two missiles at the city, but most were shot down, a statement from Ukraine’s Southern Command said. A woman was injured and the Odesa hotel was set on fire, Oleg Kiper, the head of the regional military administration, said on Telegram. Videos showed firefighters trying to put out a blaze at the 18-story hotel, which stands prominently in the city’s skyline despite being abandoned for nearly a decade.
The marine terminal next to the hotel was damaged and grain storage facilities were destroyed, the Southern Command said. Ukraine’s Defense Forces said it shot down 11 missiles and 19 drones after an air alert was raised shortly after midnight.
Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Odessa since July, when Moscow canceled a deal that allowed Ukraine to export wheat and other crops to Turkish waters across the Black Sea. Ukraine loaded a cargo ship with wheat at a port south of Odessa last week and it sailed into Romanian waters without incident, in the first test of a new coastal route.
Moscow had warned that it would consider any ship approaching a Ukrainian port as potentially military cargo. According to Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, three more cargo ships arrived at or near Ukrainian ports late last week, where they were to be loaded with wheat and other food products for export.
Fighting in the Black Sea has escalated in recent weeks, making it a major theater in a war that began when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine 19 months ago. The recent naval war coincided with a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June to recapture occupied territory in the south and east of the country. The Ukrainian attack made limited progress in the face of strong Russian resistance.
Ukraine has used drones and long-range missiles to step up its attacks on the occupied Crimea region and on Russian naval bases in the Black Sea. Last week, Ukrainian missiles devastated the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
Russian air defense forces destroyed Ukrainian drones over Crimea and the Russian regions of Bryansk and Kursk on Monday, the Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency Tass. Ukraine has launched a series of drone attacks on Russian soil in recent weeks.
— Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Andrés R. Martinez
show more