Several explosions reportedly hit Odesa at around 6 a.m. on Sunday during an air strike alert, according to Suspilne. The drone was visible, and people could hear the drone's motors in the sky.
The local news outlet Dumskaya captured a picture of what happened when a pillar of smoke went up the sky. South Operational Command later verified Odesa was struck by kamikaze drones.
More Drone Attacks Than Missile Launches This Time
The Russians reportedly struck an administrative facility in the city's center three times. Ukrainian air defenses shot down one drone, according to Yahoo! Finance. Teams of firefighters and emergency responders are putting out the fire there. The incident fortunately did not result in any casualties.
Serhiy Bratchuk, the speaker of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, suggested that the attack might have been carried out using Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia had just bought from Iran. Kamikaze drone attacks on Odesa have occurred days ago. On September 23, Russian kamikaze drones struck Odesa from the sea, killing one civilian. Air defense personnel shot down one enemy drone over the sea.
Yurii Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said that Russian forces have reduced attacking Ukraine with missiles recently but have started bombarding more frequently using Iranian kamikaze drones, per Ukraine NOW's Telegram channel.
According to CNN, which cited sources from Western intelligence, Russia had acquired hundreds of Iranian combat drones like the Mohajer-6 and Shahed-129, and Shahed-191 drones from Iran. Russia's acquisition of Iranian drones by Russia was officially verified by the White House on August 31.
Early in September, the US placed penalties on an Iranian business accused of organizing military flights to carry Iranian drones to Russia and three other companies that manufacture Iranian drones. In response to Iran's delivery of drones to Russia, Kyiv later announced that it had chosen to limit Iran's diplomatic representation in Ukraine, per Arab News.
Ukraine's foreign ministry stated: "In response to such an unfriendly act, the Ukrainian side decided to deprive the ambassador of Iran in Ukraine of accreditation, as well as to significantly reduce the number of diplomatic personnel of the Iranian embassy in Kyiv."
Referendums in Russian-Controlled Areas in Ukraine Continue
The drone attacks happened while many Ukrainians fear political repression as Kremlin-orchestrated referendums indicate Russia's probable annexation of four seized territories. Fearing being forced to vote or even being drafted into the Russian army, a large number of inhabitants left the districts before the supposed referendums began, AP News reported.
Others hid behind closed doors to evade armed Russian soldiers collecting votes. The Russian-controlled regions of Luhansk and Kherson, as well as the seized portions of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, are holding the referendums, which Kyiv and its Western allies have blasted as being staged.
They are widely considered a pretext for annexation, and Russian officials are anticipated to claim the regions Tuesday. This strategy has been applied by the Kremlin before to legitimize annexing the Black Sea peninsula. In 2014, it organized a hurriedly convened referendum in the Crimean area of Ukraine.
The majority of the world condemned this action as illegal. Ukrainian authorities have warned residents of four Russian-occupied regions that voting is unlawful and recommended they withdraw from it.
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