A 75-year-old Ukrainian married couple was killed during a Russian aerial assault on the southern port city of Odesa, according to reports from aljazeera.com.
Russia launched a wave of drone and missile strikes overnight on Thursday, targeting both residential areas and maritime vessels. The strikes injured at least 13 people across the region, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
In one specific attack, the State Emergency Service reported that the elderly couple was killed and another individual was wounded.
Serhiy Lysak, head of the local military administration, shared images showing buildings engulfed in flames and structures torn open by the impact.
“Municipal services have been working at the sites of the hits since night,” Lysak said.
Strike on maritime corridor
The assault also reached the Black Sea maritime corridor. Two Russian drones struck a bulk carrier vessel heading toward a port in the greater Odesa area, according to Ukraine’s seaports authority.
The vessel, which flies the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis, caught fire during the strike. The ship's crew managed to extinguish the blaze, and no injuries were reported among the crew, the outlet reported.
Ukraine’s Air Force confirmed that Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 107 drones at Ukrainian territory during the overnight operation. Air defense systems successfully destroyed or jammed 96 of the drones, though 10 drones and both ballistic missiles successfully hit targets.
Russia’s military claimed its own air defenses shot down 10 Ukrainian drones during the same period.
The strikes occur alongside a new wave of European Union sanctions targeting Russian energy, banking, and trade sectors. These measures aim to restrict the "shadow fleet" of tankers Moscow uses to bypass oil export limits.
Russia’s mission to the EU criticized the sanctions, stating through the TASS news agency that the measures lack UN legitimacy and infringe on the rights of third countries.
Simultaneously, the EU approved a 90 billion-euro ($106 billion) wartime loan for Ukraine. The fund is intended to cover approximately two-thirds of Ukraine's funding requirements for 2026 and 2027.
