The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it had destroyed the facilities of Ukrainian forces located in Odessa and used in Monday’s attack on Crimea.
“Overnight, the Russian armed forces launched a retaliatory strike… against facilities where terrorist acts against Russia were being prepared, using naval drones,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The same document adds that “the place where (the drones) were manufactured, in a shipyard near the city of Odessa,” was also hit.
Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, Russian military spokesman, said for his part that in Odessa and also in Mikolayiv warehouses where Ukrainian forces kept around 70,000 tons of fuel for military use were destroyed last night.
Russian head of state Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow would “respond without fail to the terrorist attack” by Ukraine against the Kerch bridge linking the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, to the Russian mainland.
According to information released by the Russian authorities, a couple died in the attack on the bridge and their daughter was injured.
The attack, allegedly carried out by naval drones, left one of the bridge tracks unusable.
Ukraine interpreted the overnight attack on Odessa as a “warning” to kyiv about the suspension of the agreement on grain exports through the Black Sea, which expired on Monday.
“Russia’s nightly attack on Odessa using missiles is further proof that it is the terrorist country (Russia) that wants to endanger the lives of 400 million people in various countries that depend on food exports from Russia.” Ukraine,” Andri Yermak, the head of the Cabinet of the President of Ukraine, said on Tuesday.
Russia canceled all shipment guarantees and applied restrictions to the humanitarian corridor, as well as canceled the participation of the joint center in Istanbul, which coordinated the so-called Black Sea Initiative for the export of Ukrainian grains.
The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14.7 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 8.2 million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
Source: TSF
