Deadly Russian missile strikes hit Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine: Deadly Russian missile strikes hit southern and eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, as Kyiv claimed fresh advances in its long-awaited counter-offensive.

Russia fired four Kalibr missiles on the southern port city of Odesa from a warship in the Black Sea, Ukraine´s air force said. The country´s Western-backed air defences shot down three of them.

But one missile hit a food warehouse, killing three employees and wounding seven, said Oleg Kiper, the head of the region´s military administration.

Another six people were wounded after a business centre, shops and a residential complex in central Odesa were damaged “as a result of air combat and the blast wave”, he said.

Overnight, in the eastern cities of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, Russian missile strikes killed three people and destroyed dozens of private houses, regional authorities said.

A blast in Kramatorsk left a huge crater in a street of one- and two-storey family houses, an AFP correspondent said.