![Russia sets Odesa ablaze in overnight air strikes on Ukraine Russia sets Odesa ablaze in overnight air strikes on Ukraine](https://i0.wp.com/www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https://d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net/production/09db3617-c2a8-433b-a03a-0f4d5b7cfd01.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
Receive Free Ukrainian War Updates
we will send you myFT Daily Digest Email summary of the latest information ukraine war Every morning there is news.
Russian airstrikes sparked a series of explosions and fires in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, the latest in a weeks-long campaign aimed at halting Ukrainian grain exports to global markets.
“During the night, Russian terrorists launched three waves of attacks on Odessa: two waves of attack drones, a total of 15 drones and eight Kalibr missiles,” said Oleg Kiper, the governor of the region. ) said on Monday. Debris from the “missile down” was all successfully intercepted, damaging three buildings, he added.
post a video Describing the damage to a supermarket, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, tweeted: “The Russians are crazy terrorists.” No deaths were reported.
Russia’s foreign ministry on Monday condemned a “provocative” move by a Russian warship to fire warning shots at a cargo ship, while Moscow moved to tighten its naval blockade of Ukrainian ports.
In an overnight video address, Zelensky also lashed out at Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of villages in the southern Kherson region on Sunday. Seven people including a family of four and a 22-day-old baby died.
“We will not turn a blind eye to any crime by Russia,” he said. “Our soldiers have an opportunity to restore justice to Ukraine . . . along the entire front from the Kharkov region to Kherson,” he added.
His comments referred to the fact that Kiev’s counteroffensive along a more than 1,000-kilometer front – stretching northeast of Kharkov to the southern region of Kherson – has struggled to achieve significant territorial gains since its launch in June.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malial said on Monday that government forces had achieved “some success” in their goal of liberating the southern village of Urozaini in the eastern region of Donetsk. About 18 percent of Ukraine’s territory is still occupied by Russia.
Ukraine’s push south towards Donetsk and the neighboring Zaporozhye region is aimed at cutting Russia’s land bridge to Crimea along the Sea of Azov coastline. Russia has used the peninsula, which it seized and illegally annexed in 2014, as a military staging ground for a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Monday’s attack on Odessa came a day after a Russian warship stepped up its naval blockade of Ukrainian ports by firing warning shots and conducting mandatory inspections of a Palau-flagged Turkish cargo ship. The flight was heading to Izmail, a Ukrainian river port on the Danube Delta on the border with Romania.
Under the EU Solidarity Agreement, Kiev is encouraged to increase food exports via the Danube, but transport costs on this and other road and rail routes are higher than those via the Black Sea.
It marks the first time Russia has acted on threats to treat merchant ships bound for Ukrainian ports as military targets and challenges the maritime rights of two NATO members, Turkey and Romania, in the Black Sea.
“Russia should not be able to block international routes in the Black Sea, especially to Ukrainian seaports,” the foreign ministry said on Monday. “Ukraine urges its partners to intensify their efforts to preserve the functioning of the Food Initiative, which is critical to ensuring global food security.”
Ukraine unilaterally announced the reopening of the maritime transport corridor last week, following Moscow’s decision last month to withdraw from the Black Sea Food Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last year. The agreement allows ships carrying food to pass through safely.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a $200 million security package for Kiev on Monday.The latest military assistance includes anti-aircraft munitions, artillery shells, anti-armor capabilities, and additional mine-sweeping equipment from existing U.S. stockpiles
Svlook