Odesa Under Fire Again as Russia Intensifies Campaign Against Port and Energy Hubs
A Russian strike drone hit a critical infrastructure facility in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa early on December 26.
The Gaze reports this, referring to a statement made by Serhii Lysak, head of the Odesa City Military Administration.
He said the attack caused a blaze at the site, with emergency crews immediately deployed to contain the fire and mitigate the damage. No casualties were reported. Authorities said inspections are ongoing to assess possible damage to nearby residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
“All relevant services are working at the scene, and the consequences of the strike are being eliminated,” Lysak said, adding that power engineers are also working to restore electricity to homes affected by the attack.
The latest incident adds to a series of sustained Russian strikes targeting Odesa’s port and energy infrastructure over recent weeks. Against this backdrop, The New York Times has published a detailed account of daily life in the city, describing what it called the most intense period of bombardment Odesa has faced in nearly four years of full-scale war.
According to the report, large parts of the city have been left without electricity for days at a time, often accompanied by outages of heating and running water during winter conditions.
Residents have been forced to charge phones at emergency “Points of Invincibility,” in shops, or from generators installed in courtyards. Many cook food on makeshift outdoor stoves and store perishables on windowsills exposed to the cold.
The outlet recounts personal stories of residents struggling to cope with the constant threat. One woman, unable to walk or reach a shelter during air raids, relies on a social worker to carry water to her apartment on the seventh floor. Others described nights punctuated by sirens, explosions, and blast waves that shake doors and windows, leaving people trapped in their homes with nowhere to flee.
The NYT reported that while other major Ukrainian cities often experience brief lulls after intense attacks, Odesa has been under near-continuous fire since mid-December. Russian forces have focused primarily on port facilities and energy infrastructure with at least nine people killed in the city during the recent wave of strikes.
As The Gaze informed earlier, Russian attacks on port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region have caused a spill of sunflower oil into the Black Sea.
Read more on The Gaze: Russia’s War on Ukraine: An Unprecedented Act of Genocide Targeting Ukraine’s National Identity and Existence