Russia claims strikes on Odesa were in retaliation for Crimea bridge attack

Moscow launched a barrage of drones and missiles at the Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight in retaliation to Kyiv's attack on the Crimea bridge earlier this week, the Russian Defence Ministry said on July 18.

“Tonight the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a group retaliation strike with precision sea-based weapons against facilities where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared using uncrewed boats, as well as the place where they were being manufactured at a ship repair plant near the city of Odessa,” the ministry said, using the Russian spelling for the southern city, CNN reports.

It is unclear whether those strikes indeed reached their targets as claimed. The Ukrainian Air Force said it intercepted all six Russian Kalibr cruise missiles launched at Odesa, as well as “the vast majority” of Iran-made Shahed attack drones.

The Russian government said Monday that two Ukrainian seaborne drones were responsible for the attack on the bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland. A source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) also told CNN the attack was a joint operation of the SBU and Ukraine’s naval forces.

The nearly 12-mile crossing, also known as the Kerch Bridge, is the longest in Europe and holds huge strategic and symbolic importance for Moscow. Monday’s attack on the bridge was the second since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine after a fuel tanker exploded while driving over it in October.