Russian Missile Strike on Odesa Port Facility Kills Eight, Injures 27
At least eight people were killed and 27 others injured after Russia launched a missile strike on a port infrastructure facility in Ukraine’s Odesa region late on December 19.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Ukraine's State Emergency Service.
Several of the injured were passengers on a bus that happened to be at the epicenter of the blast. The strike ignited fires among parked cargo trucks, while nearby passenger vehicles also sustained damage. All fires were quickly extinguished by rescue crews.
Ukrainian authorities noted that the death toll had risen since earlier reports, which initially confirmed seven fatalities and 15 injuries following a Russian ballistic missile attack on port infrastructure.
The strike came amid a broader wave of Russian assaults on the region’s critical infrastructure. A day earlier, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that rescue teams from 12 Ukrainian regions had been deployed across Odesa region to respond to the aftermath of sustained attacks.
In a statement published on social media, Klymenko said more than 660 so-called “resilience points” – emergency support hubs providing heat, food, and water – had been set up.
He warned that the situation with electricity, water supply, and heating remained difficult, adding that railway infrastructure had also come under fire. Mobile communications were operating on backup power, while police patrols had been intensified.
Regional authorities reported significant disruptions to basic services in recent days. Parts of several communities were left without electricity, while tens of thousands of residents in the city of Odesa temporarily lost access to heating and power as repair crews worked around the clock.
As The Gaze previously reported, Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are cutting electricity to an average of around 400,000 consumers every day, mainly in frontline and border regions.
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