Death toll from Russian missile strike on Ukraine's Odesa region rises to 8

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) — The death toll due to an evening Russian missile attack on Wednesday in Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region rose to eight, local authorities said on Thursday.

“The number of victims from yesterday's attack increased to eight people," Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram, adding that a 26-year-old male victim had succumbed to his wounds in the hospital.

A day earlier, Kiper said the attack targeting port infrastructure in Odesa hit a Panama-flagged civilian cargo vessel, killing six people initially, while eight others were injured.

Noting that this was the third such attack in the past four days, Kiper accused Russia of trying to disrupt the work of the Ukrainian maritime food corridor, established by Kyiv in August 2023 after Moscow suspended its participation in the Black Sea grain deal a month earlier.

He later said the number of those injured had risen to 11.

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the incident.