Moscow bombs Odesa after Ukraine destroys Russian warship in Crimea

Russia bombed the Odesa region on Sunday, damaging an art museum and warehouses, a day after Ukrainian forces struck a Russian missile carrier at a Kerch shipyard.

A Russian Kalibr missile carrier was destroyed in the Ukrainian attack on Saturday, Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Forces, said in a statement Sunday. The ship was in the Russian Zaliv shipyard in the city of Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea, reports Politico.

“Well done, the attack went through like a SCALPel,” Oleshchuk said, hinting that the Ukrainian pilot used French SCALP cruise missiles for the attack.

Oleshchuk did not name the vessel. But the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty claimed it was the Askold — one of the newest Russian missile carriers. Russia’s defense ministry confirmed only that the ship had been damaged.

Ukrainian forces also targeted a Russian ammo depot in Sedove on the coast of the Azov Sea in the Donetsk region Sunday evening.

“It will keep detonating until morning for sure. People on the spot say that only a part of the warehouse is now destroyed. Still, nothing can be saved there,” Petro Andriyushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol in exile, said in a Telegram statement, posting videos of the ammo detonation after the attack. POLITICO could not verify the videos

Also Sunday night, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with six cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as 22 “Shahed-136/131” kamikaze drones, Ukrainian Army General Staff reported Monday morning. Ukrainian air forces managed to destroy only two missiles and 15 drones. Most of them were aimed at the Odesa and Kherson regions.

“Rockets hit the city center and an industrial building that was no longer in use,” the Ukrainian staff said.

The blast wave damaged several high-rise residential buildings and a museum in the historic part of the city — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While drones attacked port infrastructure, damaging warehouses, special unloading equipment, and grain trucks,” Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration, said in a statement Monday. Eight people were injured.