Odesa Council Rejects ₴7.1M for Shelter After Deadly Russian Drone Strike

At a meeting of the Standing Committee on Planning, Budget and Finance of the Odesa City Council, deputies did not support the allocation of more than UAH 7 million for the completion of a shelter at 134 Knyazya Volodymyr Velykoho Avenue (formerly Dobrovolskoho), where a drone hit a high-rise building earlier.

This is one of the largest shelters in the neighborhood, designed for more than 650 people. It is supposed to provide security for students of Lyceum No. 22, which is to be transferred to full-time education on September 1 - about 300 children.

During the discussion, the deputies noted that the issue needs to be further elaborated, as it has not yet been approved by the Department of Finance. Sources of covering the costs of UAH 7.1 million have not yet been identified.

Commission Chairman Oleksiy Potapsky recommended working on the project together with financiers and returning to the issue at the next meeting.

"Today there is a large amount, 7 million 100 thousand. And we do not understand what we have in terms of financial resources. That is, we don't have it available yet," he said.

The house was damaged on March 3, 2024, when Russians carried out a terrorist attack with Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones in the middle of the night. The enemy sent eight attack drones from the Black Sea to Odesa region.

Within an hour, air defense units were intensively repelling the attack. Seven targets were destroyed, but one of the drones hit a nine-story building in a residential area during maneuvers among Odesa's residential neighborhoods. Part of the entranceway with 18 apartments was destroyed.

At the time, in terms of the number of civilian casualties, this was the most massive Russian attack in Odesa since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The Russian attack with kamikaze drones on the city of Odesa on March 2, 2024, claimed the lives of 12 civilians, five of whom were children.

The extent of the damage to a residential building caused by a drone strike suggested that this was probably the first time a drone with an enhanced warhead or thermobaric charge was used. The Odesa region and the city of Odesa declared March 3 a day of mourning. A kind of memorial in memory of the victims was set up near the house where the drone hit, where residents bring soft toys and flowers.

Ірина Глухова