Russia launched 20 drones and five missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday, killing two people in the Black Sea region of Odesa, damaging port infrastructure and hitting an energy facility in the northwest, officials said.
A truck driver and security guard were killed in the southern Odesa region during the missile attack, which damaged port warehouses, trucks and a civilian ship, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. A sailor was also wounded, he said.
Odesa region is the central hub for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports that it has revived without Russia’s assent after Moscow quit a UN-brokered deal last summer that had allowed Kyiv to export food during the war with Russia.
The region’s port facilities have been regularly attacked by long-range strikes by Moscow. Russia, which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has repeatedly denied targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
Two shipping and insurance sources said a cargo ship had sustained minor damage from shrapnel, adding that it was unlikely that the vessel had been directly targeted.
Commercial ships have been able to sail in and out of certain Ukrainian ports, including Odesa, for the past year without suffering any damage, which has helped bring down the cost of insurance for shipments.
Additional war risk premiums for ships entering Ukrainian ports has hovered around 0.5% of the value of the ship for a number of months, the insurance source said, which still works out at hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional estimated costs for a seven-day voyage.
Separately, attack drones damaged an energy facility in the northwestern region of Rivne, the national grid operator said. A fire that broke out has been localized and no casualties were reported, governor Oleksandr Koval said.
The attack caused temporary power cuts in the region but did not require any changes to be made to scheduled power cuts, the Ukrenergo grid operator said.
Ukraine has been forced to introduce regular hours-long power cuts amid a supply shortage due to significant damage to power facilities since March caused by Russian air strikes.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that it had downed 14 of 20 drones over eight regions during the attack. It also prevented three of four Russian Kh-59/Kh-69 missiles from reaching their targets.
Donations poured in on July 9 to help rebuild Kyiv's main children's hospital, as Ukraine mourned at least 40 people killed during a major Russian missile attack across the country a day before, including a main children's hospital.
Reuters