Ukrainian sources have confirmed that 2 people have been killed and at least 27 injured in Russia’s overnight attacks, which have targeted Odesa and Mykolaiv. Ukraine’s military claimed to shoot down 5 cruise missiles and 13 attack drones out of 19 cruise missiles and 19 drones launched by Russia, writes The Guardian.

Suspilne reported that in Mykolaiv a 3-storey building was struck, and residential buildings and about 15 garages were damaged in the city. 19 victims are known, with 2 of them hospitalised, including a child. In Odesa, due to the attack 4 people were injured and a security guard was killed. An administrative building was destroyed, and houses were damaged by the blast wave. Warehouses were hit in the region.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to the victims, saying “Odesa. Mykolaiv. Russian terrorists continue their attempts to destroy the life of our country. But the evil state has no missiles that are more powerful than our will to save lives, support each other and win”.

After the attacks, Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak made another appeal for tougher sanctions against Russia and more air defence supplies for Ukraine: “We must unite against Russian evil. Russia’s economy should suffer a devastating sanctions blow, the military-industrial complex should be limited in its ability to produce weapons, and Ukraine should receive more weapons for defence of the sky and offensive actions.”

Ukraine will receive a USD 1.5bn loan from the World Bank guaranteed by the government of Japan, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal said.

Britain has added individuals and groups with links to Russia’s Wagner group and operating in Central African Republic and Mali to its sanctions list. Britain named Vitalii Viktorovitch Perfilev as head of the Wagner group in the CAR and said he would be subject to an asset freeze and travel ban.

A video has appeared purporting to show the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin addressing his fighters in Belarus and calling the Russian war effort in Ukraine a “disgrace”, in the first footage of the Russian warlord to emerge since his mutiny last month. In it, Prigozhin says Wagner will no longer fight in Ukraine and will head to Africa. “What is happening at the front [in Ukraine] now is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate. [We will] wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves in full”.