Russia Says Carried Out Strike on Ukraine’s Southern Command Center

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces carried out a strike on the Ukrainian military’s southern operational command center.

“Operational and tactical aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces’ military group has struck [Ukraine’s] ‘South’ operational command headquarters,” the Defense Ministry said in its daily briefing.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South is based in the southwestern port city of Odesa, where authorities reported a deadly Russian missile attack early Wednesday. At least three people were killed in the strike.

“Administrative and residential buildings, medical and educational institutions were destroyed as a result of the strike,” the command center said on its Facebook page, with images showing blown-out windows.

Russia maintains that it only targets military sites as part of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed or injured since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his country’s so-called “special military operation.”

It is not immediately possible to independently verify either side’s battlefield accounts.