Russia Launches 'Retaliatory' Missile Strikes After Bridge Attack

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Facts

  • Russia launched a wave of missiles at the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in the early hours (local time) of Tuesday — attacks Russia's defense ministry labeled as "retaliatory" following Ukrainian strikes on the Kerch Bridge in Crimea the previous day.1
  • A Russian defense ministry spokesman said: "Last night, the Russian Armed Forces delivered a multiple retaliatory strike by seaborne high-precision weapons against the sites where terrorist attacks were being plotted against the Russian Federation with the use of drone boats and against the place of their production at a ship repair plant in the area of the port of Odessa [sic]."1
  • The statement added that 70K tonnes of fuel, held at depots in Odesa and Mykolaiv, were additionally destroyed.1
  • Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials claimed that all six Kalibr cruise missiles fired by Russia over Odesa were destroyed, in addition to 21 drones that were deployed. They said that port facilities and private houses were damaged from falling missile debris while adding that one civilian was injured and taken to hospital.2
  • As fighting continued across several regions of the frontline over the past day, Russian artillery strikes were reported in the regions of Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk. Three civilians were injured in Kherson while two were injured in Kharkiv; three civilians were killed and four more were injured in the Donetsk region, while one person was killed and five civilians were injured in Zaporizhzhia.3
  • According to an analysis from the Institute for Study of War (ISW), a US military-affiliated think tank that tracks battlefield progress in the war, while Ukraine's counteroffensive continued in three sectors, Russia has also launched new offensive operations in the Kharkiv region over the past several days.4

Sources: 1TASS, 2UKRINFORM (a), 3UKRINFORM (b), and 4Understandingwar

Narratives

  • Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by TASS. These strikes on Odesa were in direct retaliation to Kyiv's terror attack on the Kerch Bridge and they struck port infrastructure from which the Ukrainian navy launched the attack. Russia will always respond to such provocations from Ukraine.
  • Pro-Ukraine narrative, as provided by Ukrinform. Russia's attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure continued with these latest strikes. Fortunately, Ukraine's air defenses successfully shot down every cruise missile. Nonetheless, a church and a hotel were damaged by falling missile debris.

Predictions