UKRAINE SAYS IT STOPPED ATTACKS ON ODESA
Russia launched three waves of drones and missiles against the southern Ukraine port city of Odesa, officials said Monday, though the Ukrainian air force said it intercepted all the airborne weapons fired during the nighttime attacks.
Falling debris from the interceptions of 15 Shahed drones and eight Kalibr missiles damaged a residential building, a supermarket and a dormitory of an educational facility in the city, Odesa Gov. Oleh Kiper said.
Two employees of the market were hospitalized, Kiper said. Video showed a huge blaze at the store during the night and, the next day, the large building’s charred and mangled wreckage.
Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, rebuked critics who suggest the counteroffensive aimed at dislodging Russian forces from areas of Ukraine should be advancing more quickly.
The Ukrainian army does not intend to engage in “largescale battles” against the Russians as the operation moves forward, Podolyak said on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The goal, he said, is a piecemeal and systematic destruction of “the capabilities of the enemy army: its logistics, technical potential, officers and personnel.”
Also Monday, the Dutch Defense Ministry and the British Royal Air Force said they scrambled fighter jets when Russian bombers were tracked flying toward the airspace of the Netherlands and off Scotland, respectively. The pair of Russian warplanes spotted in each location were flying in international airspace.
Britain’s air force said two Typhoon fighters were launched from RAF Lossiemouth to monitor the Russian bombers as they flew north of the Shetland Islands off Scotland. The Russian Tu-142 Bear-F and Tu-142 Bear-J, which are used for maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare, were in airspace that is part of
NATO’s northern air policing area, the U.K. Defense Ministry said.
Russian aircraft entering the U.K.’s zone of international airspace can pose a hazard to other planes because they often don’t communicate with air traffic control or broadcast their coordinates, the military said.
The Typhoons stayed with the Russian planes until they were out of the U.K.’s area of interest, according to a statement from the lead pilot, who wasn’t named.