Two years after the start of the hot phase of the war, Russian forces shifted to a new tactic — terrorizing civilians in order to create a humanitarian catastrophe. In Odesa and Odesa Oblast, this tactic manifested itself in March 2024, which became one of the most terrible months in the history of Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian invaders. Daily drone and missile terror, large-scale attacks with mass civilian deaths, including small children. A new double-strike tactic was tested: first a target is hit, then firefighters and medics who arrive to rescue the injured and extinguish the fire. The first major strike on an energy facility was against the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant.
We collect facts about Russia’s crimes against the environment of Odesa and Odesa Oblast during the war: environmental pollution caused by explosions and damage to infrastructure, contamination of air, water and soil with toxic substances, destruction of ecosystems in protected areas and internationally important conservation sites, and more. We will update the information daily, so please send any facts known to you to: zeleniy.list1@gmal.com
02.03.2024
On the night of March 2, 2024, four Shahed drones were shot down over Odesa; one of them, after an air-defense engagement, struck a building. Eight Shaheds were shot down in Odesa Oblast in total: four over the city and four over the sea.
A drone hit a nine-storey residential building in the densely populated Peresyp District, causing part of the building to collapse. Part of an entrance section containing 18 apartments was destroyed.
The attack killed 12 Odesa residents, including five children — two infants, a four-month-old boy and a seven-month-old girl, two boys aged three and nine, and an eight-year-old girl. A large family was among those killed in its entirety by the strike.
Another 20 residents of the building were injured, two of whom were taken to intensive care in serious condition.
A heating network operated by the municipal enterprise Odesa City Heat Supply was also damaged, leaving 11 buildings, a school and a kindergarten without heating.
During the overnight drone strike on Odesa and the region, the occupiers used upgraded Shahed drones. They changed their tactics to cause greater damage to Ukrainian infrastructure and the civilian sector, according to Natalia Humeniuk, head of the press center of the Southern Joint Command.
According to her, enemy drones flew at low altitude over industrial infrastructure and residential buildings and may have carried enhanced warheads.
“They are modifying their drones by increasing engine capacity and the warhead. It is entirely possible that the drone that hit the building had an enhanced warhead. The investigation will establish this,” Humeniuk said. She added that air-defense operations during the night were complicated because the Shaheds flew at low altitude and attacked from several directions at once, including from the Black Sea.
05.03.2024
At night, Russian forces attacked Odesa Oblast with strike drones. Air-defense forces destroyed 18 of 22 Shahed-131/136 drones. Fortunately, no one was injured. In Odesa District, buildings at a recreation facility were damaged. A fire broke out but was quickly extinguished. The health resort has not operated since the start of the full-scale invasion. A private house with a pier and outbuildings was also damaged in the recreation area.
06.03.2024
On the morning of March 6, Russian forces struck Odesa Port with an Iskander cruise missile while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. During the missile attack they were at the passenger terminal, several kilometres from the explosion site.
Nine service members of the Ukrainian Navy were killed in the strike. Five other people were injured.
08.03.2024
At night, the enemy once again attacked Odesa Oblast with strike drones. Our air-defense forces destroyed 18 UAVs. Unfortunately, impacts could not be avoided. A mothballed infrastructure facility in Odesa Oblast was damaged. A fire broke out in an open area and was quickly extinguished. There were no casualties.
09.03.2024
In the morning, the enemy launched an Kh-31 missile at Odesa Oblast from the Black Sea. It landed in a field outside populated areas. No one was injured.
10.03.2024
At night, the enemy again attacked Ukraine’s southern regions with Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones, launching them along familiar routes with complex manoeuvres. In the Southern Defense Forces’ operational zone, air-defense units repelled the mass drone attack intensively for more than 4.5 hours. The drones approached both from the sea and from the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast. Twenty UAVs were destroyed: 11 in Odesa Oblast, six in Mykolaiv Oblast, two in Kherson Oblast and one in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Once again, the enemy cynically directed strike drones through residential neighborhoods and industrial areas, complicating air-defense operations. One drone hit an industrial facility in Odesa District and damaged a building. Rescuers quickly extinguished the resulting fire. No people were injured. In Mykolaiv Oblast, a kamikaze drone struck an open area and damaged a power line.
11.03.2024
Another mass overnight Russian drone attack on Odesa Oblast, this time in the second half of the night. Combat operations lasted an hour and a half. Air-defense units repelled dense waves of Shaheds approaching from the Black Sea and manoeuvring between residential buildings and industrial districts, complicating air-defense work. Our air-defense forces managed to shoot down 10 Shahed-131/136 UAVs over Odesa Oblast.
Unfortunately, impacts could not be avoided. An infrastructure facility in Odesa District was hit and administrative buildings were damaged. A fire broke out at the site and was quickly extinguished. The blast wave shattered windows in nearby private houses, while debris damaged outbuildings. There were no deaths or injuries.
12.03.2024
At night, Russian forces again attacked the southern regions with Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones. During the attack, the enemy also launched an Kh-59 missile from a tactical aircraft over the Black Sea toward Odesa Oblast. Air-defense units destroyed the target over the sea.
Air-defense units repelled the drone attack for 2.5 hours. Eight targets were destroyed: two in Kherson Oblast, four over Mykolaiv Oblast, and another two left our operational zone toward Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where they were also destroyed. No impacts were recorded.
13.03.2024
In the morning, Russian forces launched a missile strike on Odesa Oblast. Our air-defense forces destroyed a guided air-launched missile fired from a tactical aircraft.
15.03.2024
During the day on March 15, 2024, Russian armed forces struck Odesa’s recreation zone twice, about half an hour apart. At around 11:03, the first missile hit a recreation facility on Dacha Kovalevskoho Street. At 11:37, as soon as medics, rescuers and police arrived at the scene, a second missile struck the same location.
A three-storey recreation-facility building was destroyed. At least 10 detached houses, a vehicle service station, a low-pressure gas pipeline, ambulances and fire-and-rescue vehicles were damaged.
Twenty people were found dead on the first day of the tragedy. Among those killed by the Russians were former First Deputy Mayor of Odesa Serhii Tetiukhin, 30-year-old police officer Andrii Boiarskyi, Tsunami Battalion commander Oleksandr Hostishchev, and Deputy Head of the National Police in Odesa Oblast Dmytro Abramenko.
The next morning, 39-year-old rescuer Vitalii Alimov died in hospital.
State Emergency Service personnel and medical workers were among the injured.
This attack became the deadliest attack on the city’s civilian infrastructure in terms of the number of people killed and injured since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Twenty-one people were killed and another 75 suffered injuries of varying severity.
Photo from open sources
The missile attack in Odesa also damaged gas and electricity utility networks.
Criminal proceedings were opened over violations of the laws and customs of war combined with intentional killing.
According to the State Environmental Inspectorate, the March 15 missile attack on Odesa released more than 81 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air.
17.03.2024
At night, the enemy once again attacked Odesa Oblast with strike drones.
The Russians launched Shaheds from temporarily occupied Crimea. Intense air-defense combat continued for three hours: drones approached from the Black Sea and manoeuvred between residential buildings and industrial districts of Odesa.
Our air-defense personnel destroyed 13 Shahed-131/136 UAVs over Odesa Oblast.
Unfortunately, impacts could not be avoided. Two mothballed agricultural enterprises in Odesa District were damaged. Fires broke out and industrial buildings were destroyed. The fires were quickly extinguished. No one was injured.
22.03.2024
Russian forces carried out their largest attack on Ukraine’s energy sector in recent times. Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kharkiv Oblast, Zaporizhzhia and Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Kryvyi Rih, Cherkasy, communities in Odesa, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Poltava regions were attacked.
The enemy cynically struck residential neighborhoods in Zaporizhzhia and the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant, whose alleged destruction Russian propaganda had been persistently promoting beforehand. In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, one person was killed, 14 were injured and two were reported missing.
The Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant is Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric station and a critical-infrastructure facility serving millions of people. A Russian missile hit a trolleybus travelling across the dam. A fire broke out at the station. There were fatalities. Road traffic across the dam was completely halted. Russian forces targeted the Dnipro HPP dam, attempting to create a new environmental disaster like the one caused when they destroyed the Kakhovka HPP dam in 2023.
The Russian army hit the Dnipro HPP twice — HPP-1 and HPP-2 — Ukrhydroenergo director Ihor Syrota said on Radio Liberty. The turbine hall and electrical equipment will have to be completely restored. It is not yet known whether HPP-2 can be restored. One support was hit and crane beams were destroyed.
Ukrenergo head Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said during the national telethon that the morning Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system was the largest of the entire full-scale invasion.
Seven private houses were destroyed and dozens of others, including apartment buildings, were damaged. Traffic across the Dnipro HPP dam was stopped. Generation facilities and electricity transmission and distribution systems in different regions were also hit and damaged. One power line supplying the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was de-energized because of the attack.
Some regions experienced power outages.
In Odesa Oblast, air-defense forces shot down at least 11 drones. Critical-infrastructure facilities were damaged in the attack, according to Natalia Humeniuk, head of the Southern Defense Forces press center. Some 53,000 customers lost power. Stabilization outages were therefore introduced in parts of the city on Ukrenergo’s instructions.
Initially, Shaheds approached from the south in several waves. Air-defense units carried out intense combat work. The drones performed complex manoeuvres and changed direction, exhausting personnel and equipment. Air-defense forces shot down 25 Shahed-131/136 UAVs: 14 in Odesa Oblast, five in Kherson Oblast, four in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and one each over Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Closer to dawn, Russian forces began a mass missile attack using aircraft and Iskander operational-tactical missile systems. Our air defenders managed to destroy 17 cruise missiles — 14 in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and three in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
23.03.2024
The enemy attacked Odesa Oblast with a ballistic missile and continued unmanned reconnaissance from the sea. A ballistic missile, probably an Iskander-M launched from temporarily occupied Crimea, struck an open area in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District. No reports of damage or casualties were received. Southern Defense Forces destroyed two Zala reconnaissance drones over the Black Sea.
24.03.2024
On the night of March 24, 2024, Russian forces attacked with 29 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles launched from 14 Tu-95MS strategic bombers and 28 Shahed strike UAVs.
Air-defense combat destroyed 43 aerial targets: 18 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles and 25 Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs over Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kyiv, Volyn and Lviv regions.
25.03.2024
That night, the enemy continued strikes on energy facilities.
Before the drone attack, Russian forces launched an Kh-31P anti-radiation missile at Odesa Oblast from a tactical aircraft over the Black Sea in an attempt to disrupt air-defense operations. The missile lost combat capability in the air. No information about damage or casualties was received.
The enemy then attacked in several waves with Shahed-131/136 drones from the Black Sea. Four strike UAVs were shot down in Odesa Oblast and four in Mykolaiv Oblast.
In Odesa Oblast, debris from a downed drone damaged an energy facility and caused a fire, leaving part of the regional center and nearby communities without electricity. The fire was extinguished. No people were injured.
Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov reported on the response to the overnight attack and the current situation in Odesa: “Because of the strike on an energy-infrastructure facility, emergency power outages were introduced in the city, the CHP plant, two municipal boiler houses and Infoxvodokanal pumping stations stopped operating. Water supply and sewerage have now been restored in the city. Boiler-house operations in Peresyp District have also been restored. The CHP plant is being restarted.”
According to energy workers, restoration work is under way at the damaged facility. Municipal Points of Invincibility in Odesa were opened for this period. All municipal water-pump rooms, medical institutions and administrative-service centers are operating.
Because of a power shortage, municipal electric transport was temporarily suspended. More medium- and large-capacity buses were deployed on major routes.
In the afternoon, the enemy launched a missile strike on Odesa. Ten people were injured. Seven people, including three women, remained in medical facilities for treatment. Everyone else received assistance at the scene.
Around 300 apartments were damaged by the strikes. Several buildings were destroyed. Between 500 and 600 windows were blown out.
The Palace of Sports also lost its glazing. Around 50 children — hockey and figure-skating groups — were training on the ice rink during the missile attack. Before the missile arrived, coaches managed to get the children into a shelter, so no one was injured.
Odesa Botanical Garden was also damaged. Greenhouses, the administration building, the library and laboratories were damaged. The blast wave blew out doors and windows.
28.03.2024
During the night and morning, the enemy again attacked Odesa Oblast. At the beginning of the night, Russian Tu-22M3 aircraft that had reached launch positions over the Black Sea fired Kh-22 missiles toward the south of the region. Later, a Su-30 aircraft launched an anti-radiation missile in the same direction. The missiles lost combat capability over the sea.
Then, at around 3 a.m., the enemy attacked Odesa Oblast with strike drones. Our air-defense forces destroyed two Shaheds. Fortunately, no one was injured.
29.03.2024
At night, the enemy carried out a powerful combined missile and air attack on Ukraine’s fuel-and-energy facilities, using different types of missiles and strike UAVs — 99 aerial attack weapons in total. Air-defense combat destroyed 84 aerial targets.
In Lviv Oblast, debris from Russian weapons damaged a critical-infrastructure facility. No one was injured. Air-defense forces shot down all 11 drones. The Russian army also launched two Kinzhal missiles, which could not be destroyed.
Three Russian targets were shot down in Khmelnytskyi Oblast. No casualties or infrastructure damage were reported.
A critical-sector facility was attacked in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.
For the first time, Kh-101/555 missiles travelled more than 2,100 km.
The Shahed-136 kamikaze-drone raid began after 20:40 on March 28 and ended at around 5:00 on March 29, making it one of the longest raids involving this component.
Two Kh-101 missiles entered Moldovan airspace near the village of Naslavcea.
Russian forces also continued missile terror against Odesa Oblast. During the day, the enemy launched two guided air-launched missiles at Odesa from the Black Sea. Air-defense forces shot down both targets. One city social-service facility was damaged. Its residents and staff were in a shelter. Several windows were blown out. Debris fell in several parts of the city, injuring two children aged 10 and 15. The total number of injured rose to five.
30.03.2024
At night, the enemy launched 12 Shaheds at Ukraine, nine of which were shot down: four over Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, two over Odesa Oblast, one over Kherson Oblast and two over Poltava Oblast. Energy infrastructure was again targeted. There were no casualties or critical destruction.
31.03.2024
On the night of March 31, 2024, Russian forces attacked with 14 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles from Tu-95MS strategic aircraft launched from Russia’s Saratov region, 11 Shahed strike UAVs launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia and Crimea, an Iskander-M ballistic missile from Crimea, and an Kh-59 guided air-launched missile from temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Air-defense combat destroyed 18 aerial targets: nine Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles and nine Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs.
The enemy again targeted energy infrastructure in Odesa Oblast and agro-industrial facilities in Kherson Oblast.
Intense air-defense combat lasted for about two hours. All eight drones were shot down.
Debris from a downed drone caused a fire at one of the region’s energy facilities, which led to power outages in several communities. The fire was extinguished. No people were injured. Restoration work is ongoing.