KYIV (Reuters) – Explosions rocked the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday after the Russia-installed head of the annexed Crimea peninsula said Ukrainian forces had attacked drilling platforms owned by a Crimean oil and gas company.
A spokesperson for the regional administration confirmed there had been blasts in Odesa but gave no further details. He did not say whether there had been any casualties.
Oleksiy Honcharenko, a lawmaker from Odesa, said the city appeared to have come under attack in what he described as “revenge for our morning shelling of oil rigs near Crimea.”
Sergei Aksyonov, who was installed by Moscow as head of the Crimea region that Russia annexed in 2014, said drilling platforms owned by the Chernomorneftegaz energy company had come under attack in the Black Sea off Ukraine’s south coast.
Three people were wounded, and a search was under way for seven workers, he said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency said the drilling platforms were located 71 km (44 miles) from Odesa. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the reports of the attack.
Ukraine’s military said earlier on Monday that it had shot down at least one Russian missile near Odesa. City authorities said 80 windows had been shattered by the blast when the missile was intercepted. Moscow did not immediately comment on the reports.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, editing by Timothy Heritage)
