Kyiv, Jul 24 (EFE).- Hours after a new round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia concluded in Istanbul, the Russian army launched a “massive” attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa on Wednesday night, causing damage to civilian infrastructure, officials said.
Multiple fires broke out in the city as a result of the attack, the governor of the Odessa region, Oleg Kiper, said on Telegram.
“There is also damage to architectural monuments in the historical center of Odessa, which is under UNESCO protection,” Kiper added.
Among the monuments damaged is Primorsky Boulevard, often referred to as the city’s “calling card” and included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
According to Kiper, an enemy drone hit right in the middle of the boulevard resulting in broken windows in historical monuments, damaged facades, broken lanterns and benches.
Two shopping pavilions in the legendary Odessa market, a massive wholesale and retail market located on the outskirts of Odessa, were also damaged in the attack.
Four people were injured when multiple storeys of a residential building were destroyed by the Russian drones.
“All were provided with medical assistance on the spot, now the wounded continue to be treated as outpatients,” the governor said, adding that an administrative building and a gas station were also damaged.
Russia also attacked the city of Cherkasy, in central Ukraine, where over 10 people were injured, including a nine-year-old child, according to the governor of the region of the same name, Igor Taburets.
“Yesterday, at a meeting in Istanbul, the Russian side was again offered an immediate and complete ceasefire. In response, Russian drones are hitting residential buildings and Privoz in Odessa, high-rise buildings in Cherkasy, the energy infrastructure of the Kharkiv region, the university gym in Zaporizhzhia, and the Donetsk, Sumy, and Mykolaiv regions,” Taburets said.
“Russia does not stop terror, blocks diplomacy, and that is why it deserves full-scale sanctions responses and our strikes on its logistics, its military bases, and its military production facilities,” he added.
Russia and Ukraine trade long-range drone attacks every night.
Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire to deepen negotiations to end the war, but Russia is rejecting such a truce for the time being and is advocating addressing the underlying issues of the conflict before laying down its weapons. EFE
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