Ukraine promised, this Sunday, July 23, “reprisals” after the firing by Russian forces of “19 missiles” on the historic port of Odessa. Russia carried out an attack on the port city in the dead of night from Saturday to Sunday, killing two and injuring at least 22. “Missiles against peaceful cities, against apartment buildings, a cathedral, listed President Volodymyr Zelensky. There will certainly be reprisals against Russian terrorists for Odessa,” he added. The Russian army has assured that it is targeting only military sites.
“Fourteen people were transferred to hospitals in the city, three were children,” said the regional governor. Odessa, which has been part of the world heritage of humanity since January, is regularly targeted by Russian strikes. The uninterrupted projectiles “damaged port infrastructure, at least six residences including apartment buildings,” the army said, adding that a missile hit the Orthodox cathedral in the city center. Ukraine accuses Russia of having “destroyed” the cathedral of the Transfiguration of Odessa classified by Unesco – it is seen damaged on a video of the Town hall posted on its Telegram channel – a “war crime” according to Kiev.
Planted on the shores of the Black Sea, Odessa is a strategic city for maritime transit in the region. Faced with this new attack – the city notably experienced a “hellish night” last Thursday with the destruction of port infrastructure – the presidency once again called for “more defense missile systems” and tactical missiles for Ukraine.
This new night attack also comes the day after a Ukrainian drone attack which blew up an ammunition depot in Crimea, causing the evacuation of the surrounding population and the temporary suspension of rail traffic in this peninsula annexed by Russia.
Meeting Putin Lukashenko in Saint Petersburg
These new attacks come a few hours before the meeting between Vladimir Putin and the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a faithful ally of Moscow. The two leaders, who are to meet in Saint Petersburg, have planned in particular to discuss the “strategic partnership and alliance” between Moscow and Minsk, according to the terms of a press release published Friday by the Kremlin.
“The triggering of an aggression against Belarus will amount to an aggression against the Russian Federation. We will respond to it with all the means at our disposal”, warned Vladimir Putin during a meeting of his Security Council broadcast on television, Friday, July 21. Alexander Lukashenko is presented as the mediator between the Kremlin and Evgueni Prigojine during the abortive Wagner rebellion in Russia, almost a month ago. This is the first meeting between the two men since.
Ongoing offensive in Zaporizhia
In the northeast, on the Zaporizhia front, where the largest nuclear power plant in Europe occupied by the Russians is located, the latter repelled “three attacks by the armed forces of Ukraine in the direction of Rabotino”, according to the TASS agency. “Tanks, infantry vehicles and men” of the Ukrainian army were “destroyed”, affirmed the person in charge of the press of the Russian units. For its part, the Ukrainian army declared that Moscow was concentrating “the main part of its efforts in preventing the advance” of its troops. According to the same source, Russia failed to “recover a lost position south of Novodarivka, in the Zaporizhia region”.
“At the same time, the Defense Forces of Ukraine continued to carry out an offensive operation on the Melitopol and Berdyansk fronts, consolidating the positions reached,” the army of Ukraine said.
Russian journalist killed: “a heinous crime” according to Moscow
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday described the premeditated death in a Ukrainian bombing of a Russian journalist as a “heinous crime”, judging the West “responsible” alongside Kiev and promising “a response” to those responsible for this attack. Earlier in the day, the Russian army announced that a Russian journalist from the Ria Novosti news agency, Rostislav Jouravlev, had been killed and three others injured in a Ukrainian bombardment in the Zaporizhia region.
According to the ministry, “journalists were gathering material for a report on the shelling by Kiev regime militants of settlements in the Zaporizhia region with cluster munitions banned in many countries of the world”, when the Ukrainian army deliberately launched an artillery attack against them. “The perpetrators of the brutal massacre of the Russian journalist will inevitably receive the punishment they deserve,” said the same source, assuring that “those who supplied cluster munitions to their proteges in Kiev will also share the full measure of responsibility”.