13 killed in large-scale Russian strikes, Ukraine disrupts navigation in the Sea of Azov
Ukrainian sources announced on Thursday (July 16th) that at least 13 people were killed and about 50 others were injured as a result of violent Russian strikes targeting several areas in Ukraine, coinciding with the sound of huge explosions that shook the capital Kyiv and the outbreak of fires in some of its residential and non-residential neighborhoods.
Ukraine's Air Defense Command said the violent explosions in Kyiv were caused by Russian ballistic missiles fired in successive batches and targeted the center of the capital. In the same context.
Media sources indicated that a series of explosions shook the city shortly after midnight on Wednesday, following an urgent warning issued by the Ukrainian Air Force of the approaching ballistic missiles, indicating the observation of dense flashes of light in the sky of the capital, followed by about 6 consecutive explosions.
For his part, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko explained that shrapnel from Russian missiles fell on non-residential buildings and led to the injury of a local warehouse and the outbreak of a fire in it.
Russian bombardment escalates and Zaporizhzhia nuclear engineer assassinated
The mayor of Kharkiv, the largest city in northeastern Ukraine, announced that his city had been hit by simultaneous Russian drones, and the coordinated attacks came a few hours after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Kyiv to boost joint defense cooperation.
In the Odesa region, regional governor Oleg Kiper confirmed that Russian missile and drone attacks continued for the fifth day in a row, killing 3 people and injuring 8 others, as well as severely damaging a depot, a gas pipeline and other buildings.
Ukraine's emergency and relief services reported that one person was killed in the Mykolaiv region in the south of the country, and another in Kryvyi Rig in the east, in addition to two people in the Donetsk region.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, civil defense crews confirmed that 3 people were killed and 15 others were wounded in devastating Russian airstrikes targeting residential compounds, releasing video clips showing the evacuation of victims from under the rubble.
On the other hand, Russian authorities accused the Ukrainian side of assassinating the chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian control since March 2022.
The head of Russia's state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, said engineer Alexander Yakovlev was killed in a drone attack that targeted his car near Europe's largest nuclear plant, which also killed the driver, describing the incident as a terrorist act carried out by Ukrainian forces.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the IAEA to immediately condemn the operation.
Port Targeting and Supply Line Control Struggle
The Ukrainian Air Force announced in its daily report that air defenses succeeded in shooting down 101 of the 122 drones and two missiles launched by Russia overnight.
On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that intensive raids were carried out on the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk and the southern port of Dnipro-Bug, claiming that these facilities are being used to supply weapons and fuel to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as drone production factories and military supply ships.
Ukrainian forces have intensified their attacks in recent days in an unprecedented way, targeting Russian ships in the Sea of Azov, a vital waterway that Moscow relies on to transport agricultural products intended for export and supply of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. The network reported that these intensified attacks marked a remarkable strategic shift in the course of the naval confrontation, after the Sea of Azov remained for years a safe base and out of reach of Ukrainian defenses.
Paralysis of Russian navigation in the Sea of Azov
CNN reported that successive Ukrainian strikes have forced Russian authorities to completely suspend navigation in the Sea of Azov by closing two strategic waterways, the Don-Azov Canal and the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
Satellite imagery and ship-tracking data showed long queues of cargo on both sides of the sea as a result of the emergency measures.
The network quoted the commander of Ukraine's drone forces, Robert Provdi, as saying that Ukrainian forces have hit 116 Russian ships in the Sea of Azov in the past nine days alone, a record targeting rate that prompted the US Institute for the Study of War to say that the Ukrainian attacks have entered a new phase aimed at isolating the occupied Crimean Peninsula and cutting off its entire logistical supply lines.
For his part, Major Yevin Karas, commander of the 413th Autonomous Regiment of Unmanned Systems of the Ukrainian Army, stressed that Kyiv's long-range and low-cost economic and military strikes will continue to cut off the logistical arteries of the Russian army and establish a new naval reality.