One dead, thousands without heating after the Russian attack on Odesa

Authorities said on Friday that one person was killed and 10 injured in a massive Russian attack in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, which set fire to apartments and knocked out heating.

According to the mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, as a result of the strikes on the Black Sea city on Thursday night, residential buildings, heating networks, churches and educational institutions were damaged, said the mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov, who called it a “massive combined attack of the enemy”.

Early on Friday, Trukhanov announced that a 35-year-old woman who was sleeping by the window during the attack had died.

The State Emergency Service confirmed one death and reported 10 more wounded, including two children.

Fires broke out in several places but were quickly extinguished, while a central heating pipe was damaged, leaving tens of thousands of people out in the cold as overnight temperatures plunged to freezing.

“More than 40,000 people (as well as) medical and social institutions are without heating,” Trukhanov wrote in Telegram. “Generators and heaters work in medical facilities.”

The mayor’s office said that while the pipeline is being repaired, hot drinks and blankets are being distributed.

Fleeing during the air raid siren, Oleksandra from Odesa said that she saw photos of her destroyed house.

“When everything happened, we were hiding in a shelter. We saw in the photos from local channels that it was our house,” she told Sospil Odesa.

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Russia has recently stepped up airstrikes in southern Ukraine, damaging civilian vessels and port facilities in the Odesa region, while Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russian military and energy targets.

Early Friday morning, the Ukrainian Air Force reported six Tu-95 bombers capable of carrying cruise missiles flying southeast from a base in Russia.

Meanwhile, Moscow’s Defense Ministry announced that it had intercepted 51 Ukrainian drones overnight, preventing an attack aimed at coastal regions, particularly over Crimea and the Sea of ​​Azov.

Ukraine is preparing for the worst winter of the war, as Moscow has destroyed part of its generating capacity and continues to strike energy facilities.

In previous winters, millions of Ukrainians endured regular power outages and lost heating in sub-zero conditions.

Ukrainian forces are losing ground in the east, and concerns are growing in Kyiv about the future of foreign military aid following Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election.

Kyiv has been asking its Western allies for months to provide more air defense systems to repel Russian attacks on cities and critical infrastructure.