Russia, Ukraine renew accusations over overnight airstrikes, killing 8

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS) said on Telegram today that two people were killed and at least eight others were injured in the attack. “All necessary emergency services are working at the sites,” the DSNS said, which also reported that two people were injured in the country’s southern Odesa region following overnight Russian strikes.

It said the strikes in the Odesa region caused a fire at a previously attacked shopping centre, while a two-story private residential building caught fire at another location, where the injuries occurred. It also said that the roof of a seven-story city hospital building and a 10-story non-residential building were damaged.

Separately, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said that six people were killed and 12 others injured following a morning strike on a farm in the village of Stara Hnylytsia. Ukraine’s Air Force claimed that its air defences shot down 220 out of 282 drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as seven missiles.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed it launched a massive strike on a number of facilities involved in drone production and telecommunications centres providing services to the Ukrainian military in Kyiv.

It further claimed striking two logistics centres in Odesa “used for storing and distributing military and dual-use cargo arriving in Ukraine from European nations,” as well as a tanker “transporting fuel intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine” to the port of Chornomorsk.

It also claimed downing 40 Ukrainian drones overnight over six regions, as well as over Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The operational headquarters in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region said that a fire broke out at an unspecified facility in the region’s Dinskoy district due to falling drone debris.

“There were no casualties. Fifty personnel and 15 pieces of equipment – including units from the Russian Emergencies Ministry – have been deployed to extinguish the fire,” the statement added. Independent verification of the claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.

Both Russia and Ukraine have ramped up strikes in recent months, targeting each other’s logistics centres, ports, and energy infrastructure. Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, maintaining that their strikes are directed at military targets or facilities linked to military activities.