Russian attacks leave eight dead in Ukraine, Ukraine retaliates by striking Russian ships in the Black Sea

During the night and morning hours of Wednesday, the Russian offensive across several areas of Ukraine resulted in at least eight people killed and many others wounded. At the same time, Ukrainian forces reported they had managed to strike 20 Russian vessels in the waters of the Black Sea, of which 17 were oil tankers.

The port of Odesa became the scene of the most devastating attacks, where a barrage of drones and missiles caused the death of three people and wounded three others. One of the missiles slammed into a multi-story residential building, also destroying a commercial structure and a gas line. Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional administration, leveled strong accusations against Russia, blaming it for deliberate attacks on the civilian population.

In the city of Sumy, in the northeast of the country, shelling with guided aerial bombs left three victims dead and 17 wounded. The regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia also faced loss of life, where two more people were confirmed killed.

From Moscow’s perspective, the Russian Ministry of Defense clarified that the targets of the operations in Odesa were maritime infrastructure points and fuel unloading areas, which, according to their claims, were being used for military purposes and logistical support.

Simultaneously, the Ukrainian military announced the success of an overnight operation, striking the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. This action involved 20 ships, the vast majority of which—17 of them—were oil tankers. As a consequence of these counteroffensives, Russia has been forced to significantly reduce its naval activity in the Sea of Azov, a key artery for Russian grain exports.

According to the latest data from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the month of June recorded a tragic number of civilian casualties, with at least 293 dead and 1,990 wounded. The report notes that long-range weapons, such as drones and missiles, accounted for 45 percent of these tragedies, many of which occurred in deep urban areas like Kyiv and Dnipro, far from the front line.