Ukrainian officials have disclosed that Russia launched overnight air attacks on Ukraine’s south and east using drones and possibly ballistic missiles.
The reported attack came a day after the Kremlin blamed Ukraine for striking a bridge in Crimea that links Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea and is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war.
Russia’s defence ministry called the overnight attacks “a mass revenge strike.” The ministry said in a statement that it struck Odesa and Mykolayiv and hit all targets.
The southern port of Odesa and the Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions were under threat of Russian drone attacks, Ukrainian officials disclosed.
They added that Russia may be using ballistic weaponry to attack the regions of Poltava, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kirovohrad.
Air raid alerts blared in many Ukrainian regions for hours, before being called off at about 4:30am (01:30 GMT).
According to the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command, the Russians first sought to wear down Ukraine’s air defenses with the drones and then targeted Odesa with six Caliber cruise missiles.
All six missiles and 25 drones were shot down by air defenses in the Odesa region and other areas in the south but their debris and shock waves damaged some port facilities and a few residential buildings, injuring an elderly man at his home, officials said.
“Six Calibers, 31 Shahed-136/131 attack drone and one reconnaissance BPLA were destroyed,” Ukraine air force noted in a statement.
“Caliber winged missiles and the vast majority of kamikaze drones were destroyed in the south – in Odessa and Mykolaiv regions. The rest of the impact BPLA was affected in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday that its forces had foiled a Ukrainian attack on occupied Crimea using 28 drones.
The ministry revealed that 17 of the attacking drones were shot down by air defenses and 11 others were jammed by electronic warfare means and crashed. It said there was no damage or casualties.
Also, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Marat Khusnullin stated on Tuesday that road traffic has partially resumed on the Crimean Bridge, which came under attack on Monday.
In a post on Telegram, Khusnullin said, “Motor transport on the Crimean Bridge has been restored in reverse mode on the most outer right lane.”
However, ferry operations were suspended early on Tuesday, due to bad weather, Russian agencies reported, citing the Moscow-backed emergency situations ministry of Crimea.
“The Goal Of The Russian Federation Is Hunger And Killing People”
Due to the fact that the attack on Ukraine took place a day after Russia suspended the Black Sea deal, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the attack is proof that the Kremlin is ready to endanger the lives of millions of people around the world who need Ukrainian grain exports.
The Black Sea deal is an agreement that had allowed Ukraine to ship vital grain supplies across the Black Sea.
“The world must realize that the goal of the Russian Federation is hunger and killing people,” Yermak said. “They need waves of refugees. They want to weaken the West with this,” he added.
The United Nations and Ukraine’s Western allies criticized Moscow for halting the Black Sea Grain Initiative, saying it put many lives in peril.
Hunger is a growing threat in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty.
The Kremlin said that the agreement would be suspended until Moscow’s demands to lift restrictions on exports of Russian food and fertilizer to the world are met.
READ ALSO: Russia To Consider Rejoining Black Sea Grain Deal When It Sees ‘Results’
