Southern Ukraine targeted by drone attacks, air defense activated in Odessa region
Ukrainian air defenses were activated early Tuesday in the southern Odessa region, a key area for the grain deal that expired on Monday evening, local authorities said.
“Odessa. Air defense combat operations continue », said on Telegram Sergey Bratchuk, spokesman for the military administration of Odessa oblast. According to the Ukrainian operational command for the south of the country, “the enemy is attacking the southern regions with unmanned aerial vehicles”he said on Telegram.
Southern Ukraine is targeted by “drone attacks”reported the regional governor, Oleh Kiper, on the same social network, calling on the population to stay in the shelters until the air alert is lifted.
Air alerts were in progress early Tuesday across the country, in the regions of Odessa, Mykolaiv (south), Kherson (south), Zaporijia (south) but also in those of Donetsk (south-east), Kharkiv (east) , Dnipropetrovsk (center-east), Poltava (east), Kirovograd (center) and Cherkassy (center).
Odessa, whose historic center was inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger in January, has been bombed several times since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
After Moscow’s invasion began, Ukrainian Black Sea ports had been blockaded by Russian warships until an agreement, signed in July 2022 under the auspices of the United Nations and Turkey , allows the passage of essential grain exports. The Odessa region has three ports that were part of the crucial global food deal that expired Monday night.