Russian forces have stepped up aerial strikes in their nearly 16-month war, a Ukrainian military spokesman said, while the country’s armed forces have reported limited gains in the early stages of a counteroffensive.
Russian forces fired cruise missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa and shelled the eastern Donetsk region early Wednesday, killing at least six people and damaging dozens of homes, regional Ukrainian officials said. Russian forces have stepped up aerial strikes in their nearly 16-month war, a Ukrainian military spokesman said, while the country’s armed forces have reported limited gains in the early stages of a counteroffensive to take back the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory that is under Russian control. In Odesa, three food warehouse employees were killed in a strike that also damaged homes, shops and cafes in the city’s downtown, the regional administration said on Facebook. Another 13 people were injured. Putin ponders: should Russia try to take Kyiv again? Search teams were looking for possible survivors under the rubble of the warehouse, it said. The attack on the port city, launched from the Black Sea, was the second in a week and involved four Kalibr cruise missiles, three of which were intercepted by air defences, the administration said.
