Ukraine-Russia war latest: Football stadium in Odesa damaged by Russian strike

Volodymyr Zelensky has touched down in Serbia for his first visit to the Balkan country, Serbia’s N1 TV reported.

The Ukrainian president is expected to meet populist president Aleksandar Vucic, with his visit likely sour ties between Serbia and Russia, its long-time ally and main natural gas supplier.

On Thursday, Mr Vucic said the two leaders would discuss the bid by both countries to secure membership in the European Union as well as economic and energy cooperation.

Pictures show the damage to the Chornomorets Stadium, which was hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday that Kyiv had struck further oil facilities deep inside Russia during nighttime attacks, intensifying its strategy to cripple Moscow’s wartime economy and embarrass the Kremlin.

These persistent strikes have caused fuel shortages and rattled Russians, while heartening Ukrainians who face regular Russian barrages that Kyiv’s weakened air defences struggle to counter.

Zelenskyy, speaking on social media, specified two targets: a refinery in Bashkortostan, over 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) behind the eastern front line, and another in the Yaroslavl region, nearly 700 kilometres (400 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

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A Russian strike hit a football stadium in Odesa today, injuring at least one person.

The strike hit the 34,000-seater Chornomorets Stadium.

The shelling destroyed the roof, windows, and stands, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.

A 29-year-old woman was injured with shrapnel wounds, Odesa’s regional governor Oleh Kiper said.

The attack came a day before the Ukrainian Premier League game.

We’ve just heard from Moscow’s defence ministry, which says that Russian forces have struck two more cargo vessels in the Black Sea that were being used “in the interests of the Ukrainian military”.

The ministry said Russian forces also hit fuel storage facilities at the port of Pivdennyi.

The Independent has been unable to verify Moscow’s claims, but we’ll bring you more when we have it.

Two people have reportedly been killed after a Ukrainian drone struck an apartment building in Kerch, in Russian-controlled Crimea, on Friday.

This is according to the Russia-installed governor of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov, who was cited by Moscow’s Tass news agency.

German authorities say a potentially catastrophic attack may have been narrowly prevented after an explosive-laden drone was discovered at Leipzig Airport near Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft, one of which was reportedly carrying military ammunition.

A classified police report, cited by German media WDR and NDR and the Suddeutsche newspaper, said one of the aircraft was loaded with military ammunition.

German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt said the bomb failed to detonate only because its detonator appeared to have been “ripped”, potentially averting a mass-casualty incident.

Investigators believe the drone carried a powerful plastic explosive, possibly Semtex, and had been modified to evade electronic detection.

Authorities are treating the case as a suspected act of “foreign powers” and part of a “professional hybrid threat scenario”.

Suspicion has fallen on Russia because Leipzig Airport serves as a key Nato and German military logistics hub and the European base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines.

Some German politicians, including intelligence committee member Roderich Kiesewetter, directly accused Russia of orchestrating the attempted attack, but the government has stopped short of making that allegation.

“I consider the threat to Germany posed by hybrid attacks orchestrated by Russia to be serious,” he said.

“I also believe that the attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport was a targeted hybrid attack – in other words, an attempted act of terrorism – orchestrated by Russia.”

Military analyst Michael Clarke has said that the war is entering a “new phase”.

While Russia is making “incremental progress” and Ukraine is “hitting back locally”, he described the advances as “snail’s pace stuff”.

Speaking to Sky News, he said that the two countries are “hurting each other now to a degree that is going to push it to some sort of crisis”.

“Russia has a much greater capacity to be hurt because it hasn’t been hurt very much so far as a society.”

He said that Kyiv is “poking the bear in the eye” by escalating attacks and said that it is a “dangerous assumption” to expect Moscow to back down.

Clarke said that Putin’s “next best option” may be to “frighten” Ukraine’s European allies into reducing their support for Kyiv.

Moscow’s defence ministry has claimed strikes on three vessels used to transport Ukrainian military cargo near Ukraine’s Odesa and in Chornomorsk, Interfax reported.

We’ll bring you more on the claim as we get it.