Russia's defense ministry said it struck military targets in two Ukrainian port cities overnight in what it said was a "massive revenge strike", a day after the Crimean bridge attack blamed on Kiev.
The ministry said it hit Odesa, where the Ukrainian Navy has a facility, and Nikolaev on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, Reuters writes.
"The armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out a massive retaliatory attack overnight using precision naval weapons on the facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using unmanned boats," the ministry said in a statement.
It was said to have hit a ship repair factory near Odessa where such boats were built.
"In addition, warehouses with about 70.000 tons of fuel used to supply Ukrainian military equipment" near the cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa were destroyed, according to the statement.
All targets were said to have been hit and destroyed, citing fires and detonations as evidence.
In the Russian missile attack on Odesa during the night, the "port infrastructure" was damaged, the local Ukrainian authorities announced.
The attack on Odesa was a few hours after the expiration of the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain.
"Six 'caliber' type missiles were launched from the Black Sea in Odesa," the Ukrainian operational command for the south of the country said in a statement.
Ukrainian air defenses destroyed the missiles, but the remains of the missiles "damaged port infrastructure and several private houses."
(BETA)
Russia repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea in the early hours of the morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said, a day after the attack on the Crimean bridge.
Russian air defenses destroyed 17 drones, and another 11 of them were intercepted by electronic warfare systems, the ministry announced, reports Reuters.
The "terrorist attack" did not cause any damage and there are no victims, it added.
Yesterday, an explosion brought down a Russian bridge to Crimea in what Moscow called an attack by Ukrainian maritime drones, killing two people.
Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukrainian air defenses were activated early this morning in the Odesa region, a key area for the grain deal that expired at midnight, local authorities said.
"Odessa. Air defense combat operations continue," Sergiy Brachuk, an official of the Odesa region administration, announced on Telegram.
According to the Ukrainian operational command for the south of the country, "the enemy is attacking the southern regions with drones," the official said.
Southern Ukraine is being targeted by "drone attacks," regional governor Oleg Kiper said, urging residents to stay in shelters until the air alert is lifted.
Odessa has been bombed several times since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Odesa region has three ports that were part of a key global food agreement that expired last night.
Moscow announced that it is suspending the Black Sea initiative on the export of grain until the requirements on the export of Russian grain are met.
(BETA)
The Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 511th day. You can see what happened yesterday at the link below.
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