Odessa was attacked this evening with a ballistic missile, an explosion echoed in the city, the chairman of the Odessa Regional Military Administration Oleg Kiper announced on the Telegram application.

According to information from local channels on the Telegram app, a target has been hit, and black smoke is rising above the site of the explosion.

The alarm was raised at 6:36 p.m., explosions were heard four minutes later. The call was answered at 6:54 p.m.

Since the beginning of the day, an airstrike in Odessa and the region has been declared six times, with a threat of attack by missiles and drones.

Also at 7:17 p.m., local channels in the Telegram app reported that drones had been sent from the Russian city of Primorsko-Akhtarsk and urged residents to monitor the information in case of an alert, BTA reports.

The Bulgarians in the Odessa region number over 150,000 people and are the third largest according to the official census in Ukraine in 2001. About 50-60 thousand Bulgarians live in the city of Odessa itself. The largest compact Bulgarian population is concentrated in the Bolgradsky, Izmailsky and Belgorod-Dniester regions.