Missile attacks at refinery in city of Odessa

Odessa, Ukraine, Apr 3 (EFE).- Several missiles struck and caused a fire at a refinery Sunday morning in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, with no confirmed casualties as of press time.

The missiles hit infrastructure located in the north of the city, next to the port, near an oil pipeline that connects from Russia, at about 6am local time.

In its Telegram account, the City Council said “Odessa was attacked from the air,” that “some missiles were shot down by air defense” and that “fires have been reported in some areas.”

Explosions (at least six of different intensity) were felt kilometers from the site and three columns of black smoke were released from the refinery complex that can be seen from all over the city.

Firefighters were on the scene trying to control the blaze, coming from several fuel tanks.

A woman who was only identified as Tatiana and lives in an apartment in a two-story building about 50 meters from the facility entrance, told Efe she heard six explosions, four of them in the refinery area and two more a little further away.

She said her brother worked at the facility until it stopped operations in 2014, but that there are always security personnel there day and night.

“We heard a noise and jumped out of bed,” she said.

Another neighbor by the name of Sergei said he felt the attacks as “an earthquake” from his house, located on a hill several hundred meters from the infrastructure.

Anti-aircraft alarms sounded Sunday in Odessa on three occasions, one of them coinciding with the attack. EFE

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