Shortly before the second anniversary of its attack on Ukraine, the Russian army has once again launched missile and drone attacks against the country. In the city of Odessa alone, in southern Ukraine, three people were killed in attacks last night, Ukrainian police reported on the Telegram online service. Governor Serhiy Lysak reported a “night of terror” in the region around the central Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.
Russian troops advanced further west after taking Avdiivka, the Russian Defense Ministry said. Last week, the military also destroyed a number of weapons that the West had supplied to Ukraine. These include seven British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, a US Patriot anti-aircraft missile and launch vehicle, and 42 HIMARS missiles.
Rescue teams sifted through the rubble of a badly damaged building, where apartments were “completely destroyed”. According to police, a “civil infrastructure facility” was set on fire when Odessa was bombarded with rockets and drones. The Ukrainian General Staff wrote in its daily front-line report that air defenses shot down 23 Russian drones overnight.