Ukraine has been struggling to repel a wave of Russian strikes against the southern city of Odesa, its air defenses unable to cope with the types of missiles that Moscow has used to pummel the region this week.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it destroyed just five of 19 Russian cruise missiles fired at the country overnight into Thursday. That’s a significantly lower success rate compared to previous waves targeting Kyiv and Ukrainian officials said it was due to the lack of more advanced defense systems in the southern part of the country.
People in Odesa have now endured several consecutive nights of intense bombardment. A CNN team began hearing explosions at around 2 a.m. on Thursday. The near continuous strikes lasted at least 90 minutes, the buzzing sound of drones reverberating through the port city.
Firefighters were still working at the site of one of the strikes, an administrative building, on Thursday morning. The four-story structure was smoldering and in ruins.
As the bombardment got underway, officials warned residents to take cover.”Go to your shelters and don’t leave until the siren ends. Take care of yourself and your loved ones,” the head of the Odesa region’s military administration, Oleh Kiper, said in a post on Telegram.
Ukrainian officials said the air defense systems in the region are not capable of shooting down Russia’s Oniks and Kh-22 missiles because of how fast they fly. “What could be shot down is being shot down,” Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force Command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said. “Of course, we would like to shoot down more.”
“We need means, we need to reinforce the southern regions, our port cities, with means, in particular, against ballistic missiles,” he said. “Systems such as Patriot or SAMP-T could provide protection for this region.”
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