Ballistic missiles raining down on Odesa’s port infrastructure have left a tragic toll, with eight dead and 27 wounded in a stark reminder of the nearly four-year war’s unrelenting cost.
According to AP News, the latest Russian strike on southern Ukraine, coupled with Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian facilities and high-stakes diplomatic talks in Miami between U.S. and Kremlin envoys, underscores the dual tracks of violence and negotiation shaping this protracted conflict.
Late on a recent Friday, Russia targeted Odesa’s critical port facilities with ballistic missiles, as confirmed by Oleh Kiper, head of the region.
The attack killed eight and injured 27, with Ukraine’s emergency service reporting some victims were on a bus directly hit by the assault.
Trucks in a parking lot burst into flames, and nearby cars sustained damage, painting a grim picture of destruction at a hub vital to Ukraine’s economy.
Moscow stayed mum on specifics about Odesa, though the Russian Defense Ministry claimed it hit “transport and storage” sites aiding Ukraine’s military efforts over the previous day.
Not sitting idle, Ukraine retaliated with drone strikes on Russian assets, targeting an oil rig, the military patrol ship Okhotnik in the Caspian Sea, and a radar system in Crimea, which Russia seized illegally in 2014.
The Filanovsky oil and gas field, run by Russian giant Lukoil, also took hits, though damage assessments remain unclear per Ukraine’s General Staff.
Russia and Lukoil offered no immediate response, but Kyiv defends these long-range strikes as a necessary blow to Moscow’s war-funding oil revenues, especially with Lukoil under fresh U.S. sanctions.
While the battlefield burns, diplomatic gears grind as President Donald Trump spearheads a push to end the war, with a Kremlin envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, meeting Trump’s representatives in Miami on Saturday.
This follows talks in Berlin with Ukrainian and European officials on a U.S.-crafted peace plan involving security assurances for Kyiv and territorial issues, though Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hardline demands loom large.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, weighing in on the U.S.-Russia dialogue, said, “The key question remains how the United States responds after consultations with the Russians.”
Zelenskyy added, “This is one of the most promising areas of defense cooperation.”
His words hint at hope for stronger European backing, especially as EU leaders pledged 90 billion euros for Ukraine’s military and economic survival over two years, though funding disputes with Belgium over frozen Russian assets persist, forcing reliance on capital market loans—a Band-Aid for a nation teetering on bankruptcy by spring, with the IMF estimating a staggering 137 billion euros needed in the coming years.