Russian missile attack hits Odesa, wounding seven

1/2/2025 10:53

Russian forces launched missiles on the centre of Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa, a UNESCO World Heritage site, seriously damaging historic buildings and injuring seven people.



President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the attack was "a deliberate strike" that underscored again the need to strengthen Ukraine's air defences.



He said Norwegian diplomats had been among those "who were in the epicentre of the strike" in the historic district.



Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said seven people were injured and emergency crews remained at the scene.



Online pictures posted by Kiper and by Odesa Mayor Hennady Trukhanov showed the lobby and other parts of the Hotel Bristol, a luxury landmark built at the end of the 19th century, reduced to rubble.



The Odesa Philharmonic concert hall, opposite the hotel, suffered damage with many of its windows smashed.



Online video showed fragments strewn on a street several hundred metres (yards) away near the opulent opera house from the same era. Museums in the district also suffered damage.



Kiper told national television that three explosions had resounded at intervals, which he described as a "well-established practice" by the Russian military of repeated attacks on the same target.