On the morning of April 3, the Russian Navy launched missiles from the sea on Odesa. The target was an inactive Soviet era oil refinery plant.
The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said the attack destroyed an oil refinery and three fuel storage facilities near Odessa. The facility was said to have been used to supply Ukrainian troops near the city of Mykolaiv.
The nature of the attack leads experts to conclude it was in retaliation to the attack which recently hit a Russian fuel depot in Belgorod.
Missiles were fired to Odesa from Russian ships on the April 3, at 6:00 am local time, and at least six explosions (four of them in the refinery area and two more a little further away) were felt kilometers from the site.
Several missiles landed on fuel tanks, causing explosions tens of meters high. Four columns of black smoke have been rising from the refinery and visible right across the city.
The Odesa refinery used to be operated by the Russian group Lukoil. It received crude oil from a pipeline in the Russian Urals and refined it for export. Production of petroleum-based products at the refinery ceased in October 2009 due to a lack of crude oil supplies.
The press service of the Odesa Regional Military Administration reported no casualties. Ukrainian air defense shot down two enemy missiles.
“The enemy prioritized the Odesa region as a target and continues its dastardly practice of hitting critical infrastructure. We remind you of the inadmissibility of publishing the results of the defeat, disclosure of data, geolocations and the spread of panic” said Vladislav Nazarov, officer of the operational command “South”.
According to Andrey Klymenko, Head of the Institute of Black Sea Strategic Studies, the Russians probably fired cruise missiles on Odesa from the following ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet:
• Missile cruiser “Moskva” or missile boat “Naberezhnye Chelny” from the area of the northern line between Tarkhankut and Snake Island;
• Missile frigates “Admiral Essen”, “Admiral Makarov”;
• Missile corvettes “Vyshny Volochek”, “Ingushetia” from the sea area between Sevastopol and Evpatoria.
