Two people were killed and eight wounded in Russian missile and drone strikes on Kherson overnight on Wednesday, as Ukraine launched what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a major attack on Russia’s last significant Black Sea naval base.
One of the victims in the southern Ukrainian city died after their home was struck in the attack, the city’s administrator said.
Kherson sits on the western bank of the Dnipro river, directly across from Russian-occupied territory.
The city has been under near-daily fire since Russian forces withdrew from it in November 2022 and entrenched on the river’s eastern bank, leaving civilians with no buffer from artillery and drone attacks.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia attacked overnight with ballistic missiles and 138 Shahed-type drones, targeting primarily the Odesa region in the south and Sumy in the northeast. Of the 138 drones, 112 were shot down or intercepted, according to officials.
In Odesa, Ukraine’s largest port city and primary grain export hub on the Black Sea, which has been repeatedly struck since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the attack disrupted port operations.
Odesa’s port infrastructure has been a recurrent Russian target as Moscow attempts to pressure Ukraine’s agricultural export revenues, which fund part of its war effort.
Ukraine strikes Russia’s Black Sea ‘stronghold’
In the early hours of Wednesday, Ukraine struck the naval base at Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv had “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, more than 300 kilometres from the front line.”
He said hits on air defence positions, piers and seaport infrastructure had been confirmed, and posted footage from Russian social media showing orange flashes of air defence fire and blue counter-drone laser beams against the night sky, followed by a thick grey cloud over the city at dawn.
Novorossiysk is Russia’s largest commercial port on the Black Sea and has become the primary base for what remains of the Black Sea Fleet after Ukraine drove the bulk of the fleet from Crimea using naval drones.
The port handles a significant share of Russian oil exports, making it a strategic target beyond its military significance.
Russian authorities said an eight-year-old was killed in Novorossiysk, along with seven other people wounded, including one minor.
A second person was killed when drone debris hit the garden of a private house in the village of Volna, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
Two people were wounded in the resort town of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea coast.
Kondratyev said “several hundred” Ukrainian drones had struck the Krasnodar region. Debris damaged 21 buildings in Novorossiysk, with images on social media showing apartment blocks with blown-out windows and burned cars.
Russia’s defence ministry said it shot down 502 Ukrainian drones overnight across its territory and over the Black Sea. The ministry’s self-reported figures have been unreliable in the past, and Euronews could not verify the claims.
Ukraine has significantly intensified its long-range strikes on Russian territory since mid-2025, following a period in which Western allies lifted restrictions on the use of supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia.
Kyiv says the campaign is a direct response to Russia’s daily strikes on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure.
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