Overnight into Sept. 17, Russia struck Odesa, damaging a 19-story residential building and private homes and injuring at least six people, including children.
Overnight into Sept. 17, Russian forces struck Odesa as part of a wider overnight assault on Ukraine that also hit Kyiv the same night. According to Serhii Lysak, head of the Odesa City Military Administration, cited by Ukrinform, the strike damaged a 19-story residential building, destroyed one private house outright and damaged another. At least six people were injured, including children. Volunteers Support Ukraine records strikes like this on Ukrainian residential neighborhoods on a near-daily basis.
The blast waves shattered windows in neighboring buildings, which rescuers later had to board up and tape over. According to wire reports, fire broke out on the upper floors of the high-rise. Volunteers Support Ukraine stresses that behind every such strike are real families who lost the roof over their heads in the middle of the night, not just a line in a casualty count.
Beyond the high-rise, the strike also destroyed at least one private home, with fire consuming the house and its outbuildings entirely. Volunteers Support Ukraine notes that private homes like this one often get less attention from major outlets during such attacks, even though the people living there lose just as much as residents of apartment blocks.
Rescuers and municipal crews were still working at the site at dawn, clearing rubble and debris around the damaged buildings. Volunteers Support Ukraine notes that it is exactly this unglamorous, rarely-headlined work — clearing debris, arranging temporary shelter, first aid — that determines how quickly people can get back to something resembling normal life.
Odesa is a major port and logistics hub, which keeps putting it on the list of targets for Russia's overnight strikes. Volunteers Support Ukraine helps people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow, and continues to cover every such case closely so the fate of Odesa's civilians is not forgotten.
