1 of 2 | A Russian missile and drone assault on the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa early Monday killed two people working in grain handling facilities in the city's port district and damaged a disused hotel. Photo courtesy State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Russia unleashed a major missile and drone assault against Odessa in southern Ukraine in the early hours of Monday, killing at least two people, cutting power and badly damaging the city's port, including grain handling facilities, the Ukrainian military said.
The attack involved 12 Kalibr cruise missiles, two anti-ship Onyx missiles, and 19 so-called "kamikaze" drones, according to the Ukraine Air Force, with Ukrainian air defenses reportedly shooting down all the drones and 11 of the Kalibr missiles, mostly over Odessa province.
The bodies of the two people killed were recovered from beneath the rubble of a grain warehouse, said Odessa regional military administration head Oleh Kiper.
Several other granaries were destroyed and an abandoned hotel adjacent to the city's naval station was severely damaged, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces said in a social media post.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said the hotel was a well-known, iconic landmark, fondly remembered by anybody who had ever visited Odessa.
Debris from downed drones and missiles fell on outer areas of a city, damaging warehouses and a private residence.
One person, a woman, was injured as the result of a blast wave, according to Kiper.
About 1,000 residents and businesses were without power Monday morning after the attack knocked out the electricity supply, the Defense Ministry said, but that a "large-scale repair" effort was underway amid ongoing work to prepare the power network for winter.
The ministry called the attacks a "pathetic attempt at retaliation" for Friday's missile strike by Kyiv on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol in Russian-controlled Crimea.
It accused Russia of breaching international humanitarian law by targeting civilian infrastructure, including electricity supply.
Asked for his response to the Odessa attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said queries should be directed to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Monday's strike followed 87 attacks against southern Kherson region on Sunday that killed two people and injured 11, according to Kherson provincial Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. The strikes damaged a medical facility, a church, factories, a critical infrastructure facility, and an educational institution,
At least eight other provinces -- Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Donetsk -- have been hit in the past 24 hours with injuries and deaths in three.
