Russians Intensify Drone Attacks on Odesa, Leaving 100K Families Without Power

After the dispute between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in the Oval Office, the Russians have intensified their missile and drone attacks on Ukraine, paying special attention to energy facilities, and last week was no exception. The consequences of the shelling in Odesa region, the progress of the corruption case against former regional military commander Borisov, the detention of Odesa's chief architect and more in the Intent digest.

100 thousand families without electricity

Photo: DTEK Odesa Power Grids

• March 7 was the fourth night in a row when the Russians attacked the energy sector of the Russian region with drones and missiles, and the day before DTEK Odesa Power Grids reported that 20 thousand homes were without electricity. By that time, however, electricity had been restored to 109,000 families. Also, as a result of an enemy strike, three private houses caught fire in the suburbs of Odesa.
• On March 6, the Russians paid considerable attention to the town of Pivdenne, where two people were injured and one of them was hospitalized. A private two-story house was heavily damaged, and the windows of an administrative building were also damaged.
• On March 5, the Association of Veterans of Internal Affairs in Odesa reported the death of retired police colonel Anatoliy Korpan, who was killed by Russians on March 4. On February 28, the training base of the Chornomorets football club was damaged.

Will the Odesa military officer be held accountable for his villa in Spain?

Photo: Odesa Regional TCC and JV/Facebook

• On March 5, the case of Yevhen Borysov, the former head of the Odesa Regional Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support, was sent to court. In the summer of 2023, this case began to resonate in Ukraine when Yevhen Borysov was detained in Kyiv. He was accused of abuse of office and sent to a pre-trial detention center.
• Currently, he is charged with organizing the laundering of criminally obtained property. The amount at stake is UAH 143 million. Prior to that, the case of Yevhen Borysov's illicit enrichment and forgery of documents was sent to court.
• Of course, he did not sit quietly in the pre-trial detention center and tried to get out of there: On December 25, 2024, Yevhen Borysov tried to get out on bail for the last time in the amount of 39 million, but law enforcement officials said they had information about his intentions to escape from the investigation and detained him again. Prior to that, he tried to obtain a disability and bail out on UAH 12 million.

The new person in charge of procurement for the army

Photo: Arsen Zhumadilov/Facebook

• The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has officially appointed Arsen Zhumadilov, a Crimean resident, as director of the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA). At the same time, he resigned from his position as director of the State Logistics Operator.
• When in January, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced his intention to appoint Arsen Zhumadilov as the head of the Defense Procurement Agency, a loud scandal erupted. The minister was accused of exceeding his authority, saying that he had no right to appoint the head of the Agency at all, as only the Supervisory Board could do so. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) even registered a criminal proceeding in this regard at the request of the Anti-Corruption Action Center. At the same time, the Supervisory Board of the Agency announced the extension of the contract with the head of the agency, Bezrukova, for another year.
• In 2016, Arsen Zhumadilov took part in a competition for the position of deputy head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, in which he won first place. However, for unknown reasons, he refused the position.
• In March 2017, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko ordered Arsen Zhumadilov to be dismissed from the post of the head of the Bilyaevsky District State Administration, which he had held since 2015.

The son of the former mayor of Odesa is a traitor

Photo: Association of Reintegration of Crimea

• The Security Service of Ukraine has served a notice of suspicion in absence to Volodymyr Bodelan, the former head of the State Emergency Service in Odesa region and the son of the former mayor of Odesa. He is now working for the occupiers and is charged with collaboration.
• After the occupation of the Kherson region, Bodelan became the deputy of Gauleiter Volodymyr Saldo. Intent also wrote that his son, the former mayor of Odesa , was appointed a "representative" of the occupation administration of the Kherson region in Moscow.
• As reported by the Center for Public Investigations, Bodelan Jr. was put on the wanted list in Ukraine. The court imposed on him a preventive measure in the form of detention. As a reminder, when a fire broke out on May 2 as a result of a confrontation between Maidan supporters and pro-Russian anti-Maidan protesters near the Odesa Trade Union Building, Vladimir Bodelan personally ordered rescuers not to respond to firefighters' calls. As a result, 42 people died. After the incident, he immediately fled to Crimea and began to cooperate with the occupation authorities. In October 2020, in Russian-occupied Crimea, Volodymyr Bodelan became the deputy head of the Simferopol district administration.

The chief of architecture was detained and the chief of security was fired

Marat Kasimov (wearing glasses) Victor Kuznetsov. Photo collage: Intent

• On March 5, Odesa's media space was stirred by a report that Marat Kasimov , acting director of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, was detained while receiving a $10,000 bribe. The fact of the detention was confirmed by Intent 's sources in the Odesa City Council, but law enforcement officials have not yet commented on the situation.
• The day before, Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov appointed a new head of the Department for the Prevention of Corruption of the Odesa City Council, Serhiy Gurov.
• However, the director of the Municipal Security Department , Viktor Kuznetsov , was dismissed. Officially, this happened by agreement of the parties on the basis of Kuznetsov's own statement. However, journalist and blogger Iryna Hryb claims that a conflict broke out between the director of the department and the mayor the day before.

An officer conductor at the Odesa Philharmonic.

Photo: Intent/Nata Chernetska.

• On March 7, the Odesa Philharmonic performed symphonic works by composers influenced by the events of the war in Ukraine. They were interpreted by the conductor of the Kharkiv Regional Philharmonic, Serhiy Lykhomanenko, who has been in Donetsk region for three years as an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the 5th separate assault brigade.
• Intent's correspondent attended a rehearsal of the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra and talked to the musicians.
• The Odesa Philharmonic suffered from a Russian attack in the center of Odesa on January 31.

Кирило Бойко