Authorities in Kiev reported on Friday that one dead and ten were injured in a large Russian attack that threw out heating in thousands of apartments in Odesa, Ukraine’s southern port city.
The Thursday evening strikes on the Black Sea area damaged residential properties, the warming system, churches and educational establishments, according to Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, who said it had been” a large combined army attack”.
A 35-year-old girl who was sleeping close to a screen at the time of the attack passed away, according to Trukhanov early on Friday.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said another 10 persons were wounded, including two babies.
Tens of thousands of people are enduring the frosty as overnight temperatures plunge below freezing, while the main heat pipeline was damaged and fires broke out in several locations before being quickly put out.
” More than 40, 000 people ( as well as ) medical and social institutions are without heating”, Trukhanov wrote on Telegram. ” Generating and heating are working in health institutions”.
While the network was being restored, the president’s office announced that hot drinks and pillows were being distributed.
Oleksandra, a native of Odesa, reported seeing photos of her destroyed home after fleeing during the weather raid alarm.
” When whatever happened, we were hiding in a house. She told people journalist Suspilne Odesa that we could tell from the pictures that this was our home.
Russia has largely destroyed much of its generating capacity and continues to affect energy sites, making Ukraine’s winter of war the toughest already.
In earlier winters, thousands of Ukrainians endured regular disruptions and lost cooking in sub-zero conditions.
The latest in a trend of attacks on Ukrainian cities, primarily in the north of the war-torn nation, is Odesa, which has often been targeted since Moscow launched its war in February 2022.
After Donald Trump won the election to become president of the United States, Kyiv’s population is losing ground to Ukrainian forces in the west, and worries are mounting about the future of foreign military aid in Kyiv.
Kyiv has been urging its European allies for months to provide more air-defence techniques to stop Russian attacks on cities and important equipment.
