(Moscow) Russian forces once again struck the Ukrainian port city of Odessa overnight from Saturday to Sunday, killing one person, an attack which comes hours before a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Moscow.
The two leaders, who are to meet on Sunday in Saint Petersburg (north-west), have planned in particular to discuss the “strategic partnership and alliance” between Moscow and Minsk, according to the terms of a press release published Friday by the Kremlin.
Alexander Lukashenko is presented as the mediator between the Kremlin and Yevgeny Prigojine almost a month ago during the abortive Wagner rebellion in Russia.
Regularly targeted by Russian strikes, Odessa, whose historic center was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site earlier this year, was the target of a new night attack in which a civilian was killed.
“Unfortunately, we have a civilian killed as a result of the Russian night terror attack on Odessa,” Governor Oleg Kiper wrote early on Sunday on Telegram.
Earlier, he had reported a “Russian attack at 3 a.m.” (8 p.m. EST). “In Odessa, 18 victims including four children. Fourteen people were transferred to hospitals in the city, three were children,” he said, adding that help was on the spot.
Mr. Kiper first mentioned “damage to civilian infrastructure, residential buildings and a religious institution”.
According to a video reposted by the city hall on its Telegram channel, the Odessa Transfiguration Cathedral was damaged.
“More defense missile systems” and tactical missiles for Ukraine, claimed the head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak.
strategic city
Odessa notably experienced a “night of hell” on Thursday, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of specifically targeting port infrastructure to prevent any possible resumption of Ukrainian grain exports.
PHOTO OLEKSANDR GIMANOV, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Odessa had already experienced a “night from hell” on Thursday, with Kyiv accusing Moscow of specifically targeting port infrastructure to prevent any possible resumption of Ukrainian grain exports.
Planted on the shores of the Black Sea, Odessa is a strategic city for maritime transit in the region.
For its part, UNESCO “strongly condemned” Friday Russian strikes against “several museums” and historic buildings in the center, which “suffered damage”.
The Russian army has assured to target only military sites.
Explosion of an ammunition depot
Ukraine carried out a spectacular drone attack in Crimea on Saturday which blew up an ammunition depot, causing the evacuation of the surrounding population and the suspension of rail traffic in this annexed peninsula.
Russia has described the premeditated death in a Ukrainian bombardment of a Russian journalist as a “heinous crime”, judging the West “responsible” alongside Kyiv and promising “a response” to those responsible for this attack.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Moscow presented as the mediator between the Kremlin and Yevgeny Prigojine nearly a month ago during Wagner’s abortive rebellion in Russia, arrived in Saint Petersburg (northwest) where he is to meet Vladimir Putin on Sunday.
The two leaders have planned in particular to discuss the “strategic partnership and alliance” between Moscow and Minsk, according to the terms of a press release published Friday by the Kremlin.
PHOTO ASSOCIATED PRESS
View of the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia
The new Ukrainian attack on Saturday in Crimea comes a few days after an assault on the Kerch bridge, the only work of its kind which connects the peninsula to Russia and is used in particular to transport equipment to the Russian military on the Ukrainian front.
This strike targeted “military installations” and “was carried out by Ukrainian forces”, confirmed to AFP an internal source in the Ukrainian army, without giving details on the progress of the operation.
Kyiv, which launched a counter-offensive in early June to retake the territories conquered by Moscow, affirms its intention to recover Crimea in particular, which Russia unilaterally attached to its territory in 2014.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Kerch Bridge, built according to him in violation of international law, should be “neutralized”.
The governor of Crimea chosen by Moscow, Sergei Aksionov, explained to him that the “drone attack” had caused an “explosion in an ammunition depot […] in the Krasnogvardeisky district”, located inland from the peninsula.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Residents of Oktyabr’skoye, near Simferopol, carry their belongings during their evacuation.
“The decision was made to evacuate people living within a radius of five kilometers,” he added.
The local pro-Russian authorities announced at the end of the day that rail traffic, temporarily suspended, had been “restored”.
According to the Ministry of Health installed by Moscow, four people were hospitalized, without giving further details on the nature of their injuries.
“Heinous crime”
Ukrainian attacks, rarely claimed, have multiplied in recent weeks in this peninsula.
On the night of July 16 to 17, a naval drone attack damaged the Crimean Bridge, already hit in October 2022.
Vladimir Putin had immediately promised “a response” from his army, also calling for “improving the security” of the work.
In addition, the Russian army announced that a journalist from the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, Rostislav Jouravlev, had been killed on Saturday in a Ukrainian bombardment in the region of Zaporijjia, in the south of Ukraine.
“Units of the Ukrainian armed forces launched an artillery attack against a group of journalists”, “injuring four journalists more or less seriously”, she accused.
Russian diplomacy denounced a premeditated “heinous crime”. “The perpetrators of the brutal massacre of the Russian journalist will inevitably receive the punishment they deserve,” she said, assuring that “those who provided cluster munitions to their proteges in Kyiv will also share the full measure of responsibility.”
Also on these controversial weapons, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine and regularly the target of strikes, accused Kyiv of having bombarded the village of Jouravlevka on Friday with cluster munitions.
PHOTO PETRAS MALUKAS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
Zelensky-Stoltenberg Appeal
In northeastern Ukraine, where forces from Moscow have advanced slightly in recent days, a Russian bombardment killed a 45-year-old man, wounding a 70-year-old man, the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office said.
Beyond the still intense fighting, the week was mainly marked by a verbal escalation concerning the Black Sea, after Russia’s exit from an international agreement on Ukrainian grain exports.
Moscow and Kyiv have alternately warned ships sailing the Black Sea, warning they could be targeted if they headed for enemy ports.
On Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the “unblocking” of the grain corridor in the Black Sea.
” We have […] identified with Mr. Stoltenberg the priority and future steps necessary for the unblocking and sustainable exploitation of the grain corridor in the Black Sea,” the Ukrainian president said on Twitter.