KYIV, Aug 14 - Russia launched three waves of drones and missiles against the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa, officials said Monday, though the Ukrainian air force said it intercepted all the airborne weapons fired during the nighttime attacks.
Falling debris from the interceptions of 15 Shahed drones and eight Kalibr missiles damaged a residential building, a supermarket and a dormitory of an educational facility in the city, Odesa Gov. Oleh Kiper said, The Associated Press reported.
Two employees of the supermarket were hospitalized, Kiper said. Video showed a huge blaze at the store during the night and, the next day, the large building’s charred and mangled wreckage.
Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, rebuked critics who suggest a 2 1/2-month-old counteroffensive aimed at dislodging Russian forces from occupied areas of Ukraine should be advancing more quickly.
The Ukrainian army does not intend to engage in conspicuous “large-scale battles” against the Russians as the operation moves forward, Podolyak said on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The goal, he said, is a piecemeal and systematic destruction of “the capabilities of the enemy army: its logistics, technical potential, officers and personnel.”
Also Monday, the Dutch Defense Ministry and the British Royal Air Force said they scrambled fighter jets when Russian bombers were tracked flying toward the airspace of the Netherlands and off Scotland, respectively. The pair of Russian warplanes spotted in each location were flying in international airspace.
The Kremlin’s forces have pummeled Odesa since Russia last month broke off a wartime deal to protect Ukraine’s crucial grain exports. The Russian attacks appear aimed at facilities that transport grain and also at wrecking cherished Ukrainian historical sites.
The landmark agreement negotiated by the U.N. and Turkey had allowed grain to resume flowing from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia and to help reduce the threat of hunger.
Russia has since declared wide areas of the Black Sea unsafe for shipping. On Sunday, a Russian warship fired warning shots at a cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea. (ap/ez)
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