After months of being hammered on Ukraine’s battlefields by U.S. drones and longer range rocket systems, Russia is striking back with a new capability of its own — attacking the southern port city of Odesa almost daily with winged missiles from Iran.
That’s leading some Ukrainians to begin to flee Odesa again for the first time since before the summer. Russia has hit the port and the military’s Southern Command, both in the center of the city of 1 million, plus an ammunition depot and other targets outside the city.
The threat has hurt already struggling local businesses and created issues at the port, where crews and dockers feel unsafe loading ships with the Iranian Shahed-136 drones flying overhead, Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said in an interview.