A Russian missile hits a Liberia-flagged ship in Odesa, Ukraine’s fundamental Black Sea port
KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa hit a Liberian-flagged freighter, killing a port employee and wounding one other, in addition to three residents of the Philippines, crew members on the ship, Ukraine‘s armed forces said Thursday.
The report did not give the name of the ship or the country of its owners, but Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the ship was to carry iron ore to China. The extent of the damage was not immediately reported.
The Odesa port and others in the region are economically vital to Ukraine as its outlets to the Black Sea, from which ships can head for world markets. Odesa port facilities have come under Russian attack 21 times since Russia in August declined to renew a deal allowing Ukraine to safely export grain via the Black Sea, Kubrakov said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in October that a new Black Sea export corridor had allowed some 50 ships to set sail.
In the southern city of Kherson, which lies across the Dnieper River from Russia-held territory, one civilian was killed and three were wounded in Russian firing on a residential area around midday Thursday, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Three other civilians were killed in Russian attacks over the past day, according to a summary from the presidential office.
In the Donetsk region, the Russian army shelled 11 towns and villages, killing two people in Toretsk and wounding one civilian in Chasiv Yar. In the neighboring Kharkiv region near Izium, a man was killed during artillery shelling.
In the south, one civilian was wounded during shelling of residential areas of Kherson, and another was wounded by a mine. In the area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Russians shelled Nikopol on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River, wounding a person and damaging infrastructure, power lines and fourteen houses.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now the deputy head of the country’s nationwide safety council, stated Thursday that the navy has recruited 410,000 volunteer troopers up to now this 12 months and is having a gentle inflow of those that wish to be part of.
He added that the present fight scenario permits Russia to spend extra time on coaching newly recruited troopers, charging that it contrasts with Ukraine having to hurry new recruits to the entrance line.
