One dead, thousands without heating in Ukraine port city

KYIV (AFP) — A massive Russian attack that set apartments alight and knocked out heating to thousands in Ukraine’s southern port city Odesa killed one person and wounded 10 others, authorities said Friday.

The Thursday night strikes on the Black Sea city damaged residential buildings, the heating system, churches and educational institutions, according to Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov, who said it had been “a massive combined enemy strike.”

Trukhanov said early Friday that a 35-year-old woman sleeping near a window at the time of the attack had died.

Fires broke out in several places but were quickly extinguished, while the main heating pipeline was damaged, leaving tens of thousands in the cold as nightly temperatures plunge to freezing.

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

The mayor’s office said hot drinks and blankets were being distributed while the pipeline was repaired.

Moscow’s Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, announced it had intercepted 51 Ukrainian drones overnight, thwarting an attack that had targeted coastal regions, including over Crimea and the Sea of Azov.