The port city of Odessa (southern Ukraine) was again attacked with Iranian-made drones used by Russian forces, Ukrainian military authorities said on Sunday, without reporting casualties.
This is the second Russian attack using Iranian drones in two days against this strategic city on the Black Sea, after the one which killed two civilians on Friday, according to Ukraine, and caused tensions between kyiv and Tehran.
“Odessa was again attacked by enemy suicide bombers”, which hit an administrative building in the city center three times, the Ukrainian army’s southern operational command said on Sunday.
A drone was shot down and no casualties were recorded, according to the command, whose spokeswoman, Natalya Gumenyuk, told Agence France-Presse “that these are Iranian drones”.
On Friday, an Iranian Shahed-136 drone was shot down over the sea, according to the Ukrainian army, which also claimed to have shot down another Iranian-made drone, a Mohajer-6, in another area, according to Ukrainian authorities. . The initial toll of the attack, one dead, later rose to two.
Ukraine announced the same day that it would “significantly reduce” Iran’s diplomatic presence there in retaliation for drone deliveries from Tehran to Moscow, removing the accreditation of the Iranian ambassador and “significantly reducing” diplomatic staff of the Iranian embassy.
Tehran said it regretted this decision “based on unfounded information relayed by foreign media propaganda” against Iran.