KYIV: 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 have hovered around 0.5 percent 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.
Russian attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region kills two, damages port, Ukraine says
https://arab.news/8zzjb
Russian attack on Ukraine’s Odesa region kills two, damages port, Ukraine says
- A truck driver and security guard were killed in the southern Odesa region during the missile attack
- The region’s port facilities have been regularly attacked by long-range strikes by Moscow
Ukraine’s Zelensky: We have backed US peace proposals to get a deal done
- “The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told The Atlantic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had sought to back US peace proposals to end the war with Russia as President Donald Trump seeks to resolve the conflict before November mid-term elections.
Zelensky, in an interview published by The Atlantic on Thursday, said Kyiv was willing to hold both a presidential election and a referendum on a deal, but would not settle for an accord that was detrimental to Ukraine’s interests.
“The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told the US-based publication. “That’s why we started supporting their proposals in any format that speeds things along.”
He said Ukraine was “not afraid of anything. Are we ready for elections? We’re ready. Are we ready for a referendum? We’re ready.”
Zelensky has sought to build good relations with Washington since an Oval Office meeting in February 2025 descended into a shouting match with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
But he said he had rejected a proposal, reported this week by the Financial Times, to announce the votes on February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. A ceasefire and proposed US security guarantees against a future invasion had not yet been settled, he said.
“No one is clinging to power,” The Atlantic quoted him as saying. “I am ready for elections. But for that we need security, guarantees of security, a ceasefire.”
And he added: “I don’t think we should put a bad deal up for a referendum.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zelensky is not a legitimate negotiating partner because he has not faced election since coming to power in 2019.
Zelensky has said in recent weeks that a document on security guarantees for Ukraine is all but ready to be signed.
But, in his remarks, he acknowledged that details remained unresolved, including whether the US would be willing to shoot down incoming missiles over Ukraine if Russia were to violate the peace.
“This hasn’t been fixed yet,” Zelensky said. “We have raised it, and we will continue to raise these questions...We need all of this to be written out.”
