Regional and military officials announced today, Friday, that the Ukrainian Air Force shot down 16 out of 20 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia overnight in the fifth attack this week on the Odesa region in southern Ukraine. Russia has intensified its aerial assaults on Ukrainian grain export infrastructure along the Danube River and at the port of Odesa since mid-July, when Moscow withdrew from the United Nations-mediated agreement that allowed for the safe export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea.
Oleh Kiper, the governor of the Odesa region, stated via Telegram, "Last night, Russian terrorists attacked the Odesa region for the fifth time this week." The Southern Military Command said that 14 drones were shot down over the Odesa region and two others over the Mykolaiv region. The drones were launched from Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014.
Kiper explained that a non-residential building was damaged due to drone debris but did not provide further details. No casualties were reported in the Odesa region. Regional officials also noted that Russia attacked the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast and the Sumy region in the northeast with missiles, resulting in several injuries. Ukrainian emergency services reported that two people were injured in the Sumy region and shared a video showing rescuers extracting an injured woman from a hole created by the explosion. They stated that a 65-year-old woman and a 70-year-old man were rescued after a two-story residential building was damaged. Russia has yet to comment on the latest attacks.
