Russian forces attacked the southern city of Mykolaiv twice with missiles, wounding at least five people, regional governor Vitalii Kim reported on March 17.
While there is not much information about the attack yet, including the strike's targets, Kim said that the injuries of the victims are not critical. The air raid alert went off for about 40 minutes in Mykolaiv. The missiles hit the city one after another at around 2 p.m. local time.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said "many" houses and cars have suffered damages, and windows of apartments have been blown off.
According to the governor, Russia carried out the attack from the same place as its previous strike against the major city of Odesa just 150 kilometers westward on March 15, where 21 were killed and more than 70 were wounded. Russian forces had launched the March 15 strike using Iskander-M ballistic missiles from occupied Crimea, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces said.
Over the past few weeks, Russia has ramped up its deadly attacks against civilians, especially in the south of Ukraine. On March 6, Russia also struck Odesa during President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's visit to the city, killing five people.
Russia's attack against Mykolaiv on March 17 also comes after with what appears to be a Ukrainian overnight attack on March 17 on an oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Krasnodar Krai. According to Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda's report citing a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the overnight attack was the latest in Ukraine's recent series of successful attacks on 12 oil refineries in Russia.
Western and Ukrainian officials have condemned Russia's attacks against civilians.
Oleksandr Tartachnyi
