Live blog: Strikes on Odessa leave 3 wounded; Zelenskyy vows justice for Kherson attack

Sunday, August 13, 2023

0555 GMT -

At least three people were wounded in two-waves of Russian drone and missile attacks overnight on the port city of Odessa, an official and the military in the Ukrainian region on the Black Sea said.

"As a result of the enemy attack in Odessa, several fires broke out from falling rocket fragments," the governor, Oleh Kiper, said on the Telegram messaging app.

"Windows in buildings were blown out by the blast wave."

The Operational Command South said on Telegram that Ukraine has downed three waves of Russian missiles and drones targeting Odessa.

"The enemy attacked Odessa region three times during the night, using two waves of attack drones, a total of 15, and eight Kalibr-type sea-based missiles," he said.

Air defence forces repelled all the attacks, but falling debris damaged a student dormitory and a supermarket in Odessa's city centre, leaving three workers wounded, the army said.

"The blast wave damaged windows and balconies in several buildings, and damaged cars parked nearby", it said, adding that firefighters were battling two blazes.

Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks in the Black Sea since Moscow exited a deal last month that had granted Kiev's grain exports safe passage during the conflict.

Since withdrawing from the agreement, Moscow has pounded ports in the Odessa region that were key for Ukrainian grain exports under the deal.

On August 2, Russia struck port infrastructure in Izmail, one of the main export routes for Ukrainian agricultural products to neighbouring Romania.

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1011 GMT - Russian shelling kills seven civilians in Kherson

Russian forces shelled two villages in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on Sunday, killing seven civilians including a baby, Ukrainian authorities said.

A couple, their 23-day-old child and another man were killed in the village of Shyroka Balka, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The couple's 12-year-old son was critically wounded and died in hospital, he added.

Two people were killed and one wounded in the neighbouring village of Stanislav, which Klymenko said was struck 12 times with artillery.

"The terrorists will never willingly stop killing civilians," Klymenko wrote in a Telegram post along with two photos of damaged houses. "The terrorists must be stopped. With force. They don't understand anything else."

Praising the success of Ukrainian forces against the Russians, President Zelenskyy said: “Every time we have something to thank our warriors for, Ukraine becomes closer to justice, closer to victory".

0920 GMT — Ukrainian forces seek to pierce Russian lines in south, says Russian-backed official

Ukrainian forces have reportedly been trying to pierce Russian lines in the western parts of Donetsk region where waves of Ukrainian fighters were used to gain a foothold to the east of the town of Staromaiorske.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-backed official in parts of Zaporizhzhia controlled by Moscow, said that there had been intense fighting south of Velyka Novosilka - in that area - as Ukrainian troops try to pierce Russian lines to push down to the coast on the Sea of Azov.

"The enemy managed to enter and gain a foothold in the northern part of Urozhaine after two weeks of the heaviest and bloodiest battles for this settlement," Rogov said, referring to the same part of the frontline.

He said Russian soldiers still controlled the southern part of Urozhaine, adding that Ukrainian forces were clearly aiming to take control of a town further south, Staromlynivka.

2303 GMT — Ukraine border guards remind Russia Snake Island is again theirs

Ukrainian border guards have placed a new sign on Snake Island this weekend, recalling the early hours of Russia's offensive when a comrade on the strategic Black Sea outcrop refused to surrender to a warship.

"The next border sign will be installed in our Ukrainian Crimea after its liberation by the defence forces of Ukraine," a uniformed man said, standing before a post painted blue and yellow like the country's flag, in a video shared on Facebook by the head of the border service, Serhiy Deineko.

The tiny Snake Island became synonymous with Ukrainian resistance in the first hours of the February 24, 2022 attack, when Russian officers on the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva radioed Ukrainian guards stationed there and ordered them to surrender or die.

2200 GMT — Germany's Rheinmetall to deliver Luna drone system to Ukraine

Germany's Rheinmetall will deliver a Luna New Generation drone system to Ukraine by the year-end, Bild am Sonntag reported, citing company sources.

Ukraine is desperate to boost its weapons arsenal, from drones and munitions to tanks, as it battles to repel Russia's attack.

The "Drones Package" consists of a ground control station with several drones, a launch catapult and military trucks, Bild said, adding the drone system could be used as a reconnaissance system, provide an LTE network and intercept or jam communications.

The company was not immediately available for comment.

For our live updates from Saturday (August 12), click here.