Russia hits Odesa twice in 24 hours, with strikes also reported in western Ukraine and near Kyiv

Why it matters

The salvo of 453 aerial weapons overnight — with 409 intercepted — was one of the largest single-night strikes of the war, and it came on top of the 12 September strikes, bringing the total since that morning to 863 aerial weapons. Odesa was hit twice within roughly 24 hours: a missile strike on a 25-storey residential block on the morning of 12 September that killed two and injured 26, followed by an overnight drone strike on a multi-storey building and a separate morning guided-bomb strike that injured five more; the strikes also reached Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Stryi in western Ukraine, showing the threat now extends to cities far from the front line. A logistics warehouse near Boryspil was hit twice, with a repeat strike while rescuers were still working at the site — a pattern that Ukrainian and international bodies have documented in other attacks and treat as a war-crime concern.

What happened

Russia carried out a combined missile and drone strike on Ukraine overnight into 13 September, with the Air Force reporting 453 Shahed-type strike drones and 'Banderoh' cruise missiles launched and 409 of them intercepted; Ukrainian airspace had logged 863 aerial weapons since the morning of 12 September.

In Odesa, the night strike hit a multi-storey residential building — the second time in 24 hours that Russian forces struck such a building in the city. The previous strike, around 5:30 on the morning of 12 September, hit a 25-storey residential block with a missile; fires broke out on floors 21–23, 26 people were injured (including a 5-month-old child), seven were rescued (including two children), and two bodies were later recovered during search and rescue operations that were completed on 13 September. A Russian 'Kalibr' cruise missile also destroyed the apartment of Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska during the 12 September attack; she said only a Roland Garros souvenir towel survived and called on the WTA to look at the destruction. In the evening of 12 September, a drone strike on a Nova Poshta branch in Odesa Oblast injured two civilians.

The 13 September attacks on Odesa damaged multi-storey residential buildings, private houses, warehouses, garages, private vehicles, two educational institutions, an automobile service centre and a children's sanatorium, and a fire broke out on the territory of the Odesa Botanical Garden. Casualty figures for the 13 September attacks rose through the day as officials updated counts: Odesa MVA head Serhiy Lysak initially reported 5 injured, then 9, then 20 (including two children — a boy born in 2010 and a girl born in 2017), and later 22 (including two children, with one patient in serious condition); the State Emergency Service reported 24 injured in the attacks on Odesa and the region, including two children. Odesa OVA head Oleh Kiper initially reported no casualties from the night strike and described the attack as a continuous massive missile-drone strike on the region. More than 120 rescuers were involved in the response.

The overnight attack extended well beyond Odesa. In Kyiv Oblast, a logistics warehouse near Boryspil was struck twice, with the State Emergency Service reporting the repeat hit while rescue work was still under way; in Konotop (Sumy Oblast), drones damaged a private house and ignited a garage and a car, with two people injured. In the west, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Stryi (Lviv Oblast) all reported explosions during air-raid alerts: in Ivano-Frankivsk, mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv halted public transport and closed the railway station during the attack, one person was injured and a residential building and an industrial facility in the oblast were damaged (per oblast head Svitlana Onyshchuk); in Ternopil, oblast head Taras Pastukh said most drones were intercepted, with hits on a transport-infrastructure facility and an industrial premises and one person injured; in the Stryi community, hits were recorded at an apartment block near the bypass road, outbuildings and a residential building near the station, and a school outbuilding in the Novyi Svit district, with no casualties reported. In Mykolaiv Oblast, an explosion around 22:00 on 12 September left parts of Mykolaiv without electricity, according to acting Mykolaiv OVA head Heorhii Reshetilov.

Where reporting differs

Casualty figures for the 13 September attacks on Odesa and Odesa Oblast were reported differently across sources and at different times: Odesa MVA head Serhiy Lysak gave figures of 5, then 9, then 20, then 22 (including two children, one in serious condition); the State Emergency Service reported 24 injured (including two children); and a separate tally gave 22 injured (including two children). For the 12 September strike on the 25-storey Odesa residential building, sources gave 25 injured (including a child) or 26 injured (including a 5-month-old child); one source also reported a separate mass missile-drone strike on Odesa Oblast on 12 September that injured 35. Odesa OVA head Oleh Kiper initially reported no casualties from the night of 13 September strike. The 13 September attack on the Odesa high-rise was described both as the second strike on a multi-storey building in the city within 24 hours and as a separate morning guided-bomb strike that injured five — the two events and their casualty totals are not always consolidated in reporting.