‘It Was a Very Intense Experience’ – War in Ukraine Update for March 7

Overview:

• West condemns shocking Russian shelling of Odesa, which killed five people near meeting of Zelensky and visiting EU leader
• Kyiv’s drones blow up factory in Russia’s Kursk region
• Russian glide bombs again target residences and civilian infrastructure
• Moscow’s troops slowly advance in Donetsk
• AFU troops winning drone-supply war, Kremlin’s bloggers admit

Missile strike on Odesa on Wednesday hits near Zelensky and Greek leader

The AFP reported on Wednesday that a Russian missile strike in Odesa “appeared to land near the motorcade of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the visiting Greek prime minister, who described the ‘intense’ moment of the surprise attack.”

Online reports said the attack happened nearly 200 meters away from Zelensky and the EU leader.

The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Zelensky were touring the port when “we heard sirens,” Mitsotakis remembered, and “shortly after, as we were getting into our vehicles, we heard a powerful explosion,” he said. “We did not have time to get to a shelter. It was a very intense experience,” the Greek leader said through a translator.

The attack on port infrastructure killed five people and left several others wounded. The Russian Ministry of Defense said it was targeting a nearby hangar.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni weighed in on the attack Wednesday expressing “total condemnation for the attack on Odesa during the meeting.”

“This strike is yet another reminder of how Russia is continuing to attack Ukraine recklessly every single day,” a White House spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s drones reach target in metals plant within Russia’s borders

Meanwhile, on the same day that Ukraine was blamed for a car bomb that killed a local occupational figure in Berdyansk in a small beige car parked in a dirt track, Russia also said that Ukrainian drones hit a fuel tank Wednesday at a metals plant in Russia’s Kursk region in an early-morning attack.

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“A drone attacked a fuel and lubricants warehouse” at the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant in the city of Zheleznogorsk, the AFP quoted Kursk governor Roman Starovoyt as saying.

Videos posted on social media showed thick grey smoke billowing as a fire raged inside a cylindrical fuel storage tank.

One killed by Russian attack, two women hospitalized by Russian KAB-500 bomb

Ukrainian state media outlet Ukrinform reported Wednesday that Russian aerial bombs fell on the village of Kleban-Byk in the Donetsk region, injuring two women at their residential home and striking other civilian infrastructure.

 “The Russian [military] [bombed] the village of Kleban-Byk in the Illinivka territorial community using a KAB-500,” stated a post from the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office on Wednesday. “Two women, aged 48 and 56, were injured by the bomb explosion. Both victims were at home at the time of the strike. The victims were taken to a medical facility where they were diagnosed with [fragment] and blast injuries, cuts and concussion,” the post says. In addition, the bombing damaged apartment buildings, private households, power grids, and a car.

A Russian attack earlier on Wednesday morning in the Donetsk region had killed a 63-year-old woman in the Netailove village in the Ocheretyne community, Ukrinform reported.

Operations: Donetsk region

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Wednesday reported that Moscow’s forces have marginally advanced west of Donetsk City amid continued fighting west and southwest of the city of Donetsk. Geolocated footage published Wednesday appears to show that Russian forces recently, if marginally, advanced in Heorhiivka, a settlement west of the city of Donetsk.

Meanwhile, other unconfirmed claims from Kremlin-affiliated bloggers suggested that Russian forces advanced along Heolohichna, Lermontova, and Zhalyznichna streets in the southern outskirts of Krasnohorivka, just west of the capital city, and “achieved unspecified success” north of Pobieda, the ISW reported.

Operations: Zaporizhzhia region

Russian forces recently made confirmed advances in the western Zaporizhzhia region amid continued fighting near Robotyne and Verbove. Geolocated footage posted on Tuesday and Wednesday seems to show that Moscow’s troops recently advanced east of Robotyne and northwest of Verbove (east of Robotyne).

However, at least one Kremlin-affiliated blogger claimed that invading units operating in the area “do not have a sufficient number of drones, and that Russian forces operating near Robotyne lack adequate counter-battery and electronic warfare capabilities,” ISW analysts wrote.