CNN team witnesses barrage of Ukrainian air defenses

 

What's actually happening

right now in Odessa

you can hear this

Obviously, we were just there

with President Stilinski

and now this is

what's happening here now.

Loud booms, air raid sirens

coming in from Russia.

Our Alex Marquardt is there.

Alex, can you hear me and take it away

Erin, I can hear you just fine.

And what you're playing,

there are some of the

extraordinary scenes

that we have seen playing out

really over the course of the past hour

here in Odessa.

This is a very this is a lull.

We hope

that it is a long lull or in fact,

the end of

what might be a very loud

and violent night here in Odessa.

Of course, it's just past

2:00 in the morning.

What we've heard is a significant barrage

of drones

and missiles

attempting to strike this city.

We have seen

just these extraordinary scenes

of Ukrainian air defense

trying to fend off

what we imagine

are these Iranian made head drones.

These are the drones

that Russia tries

to send

at Odessa

and other Ukrainian cities

on an almost daily basis.

But also these huge caliber

cruise missiles

that have been fired at this city

now for two nights

in a row from the Black Sea.

These are enormous missiles

that at least last night

Ukraine said that they had intercepted.

But last night we heard some impacts.

Tonight, Erin, a lot more impacts.

This has been a much busier, much louder

night than than than last night.

We did hear a

I would say

six to ten of these loud impacts.

All around us.

Now, we are in downtown Odessa.

This is one of the biggest cities,

one of the most important cities

in the country.

We're not too far

from that critical port.

What impact or rather, what effect

these missiles have had on this city

at this point?

That certainly remains to be seen.

We're

keeping our eyes glued on the sky

because what we've see,

what we've been seeing, rather,

are these

tracer rounds

that have been going

up, these red tracers

going up by the hundreds

to take down these drones

that start up at any moment

without any notice.

You can hear, Aaron,

and you've just been in Ukraine

that there is no air raid siren.

The air raid sirens

have been notably absent tonight,

but we have seen spotlights in the sky.

We assume that those are Ukrainian forces

looking for those drones,

trying to shoot them down.

Just extraordinary scenes

I've really never seen anything like it

in years of covering conflict.

Erin,

the Kremlin had already said

earlier today

that the

that this was a direct response,

a direct retaliation

for Ukraine

carrying out the attack

on the Kerch Bridge between Crimea

and mainland Russia.

And the Kremlin said, in fact,

they were still looking for more options

to try to respond even further.

And it is safe to assume,

Erin, that this second night in a row,

this much heavier

second night in a row is a continuation

of that response from the Kremlin.

You know, and Alex,

you obviously were here on the show

24 hours ago when you were

you were talking about explosions

that obviously, as you were speaking,

that was happening.

You also were hearing

those air raid sirens.

And, of course, as we all know,

you become accustomed

to those air raid sirens.

But but they're meaningful and often

they are related to drones, caliber

missiles, whatever it might be.

But you're talking about tonight

not hearing those air raid sirens.

And obviously,

I know

you don't know the reason as to why,

but it does seem notable

Well, you're absolutely right, Erin.

And we should make the point

that oftentimes

there are air raid sirens

that are all across the country,

for example,

when a bomber is sent up in Russia.

We can hear an air raid

siren all across the country

because we simply don't know

where that Russian bomber

is going to target.

And so so Ukrainian authorities want

their citizens

to to take cover and go into basements

so that they aren't hurt.

They want them to stay away from windows

so that if there is an explosion,

that they don't get hurt.

It's hard to say that

there certainly were air raid

sirens earlier in the evening.

And then later,

I just noticed

at the later end of this latest salvo,

that I wasn't hearing air raid sirens,

but there has been a lot going on air.

And I really can't overstate that enough.

It has been

a just an extraordinary mix of these

of these anti-aircraft machine guns

firing into the air.

We have seen

what appear to be

drones falling out of the sky

or at least some kind of object on fire.

Streaking out of the sky.

We saw that last night as well.

And then these extraordinary

sounds of impact so loud

that it has set off

car alarms all around town.

It's very difficult

to say where those impacts were,

how far away from us,

but but certainly enough to

to shake the building

that we're in

and caused

the cars around us to have their alarms

go off Erin.

So, Alex,

what is the sense

of how much this escalates from here?

Obviously, you're in Odessa,

current home of the Ukrainian navy,

such that there still is. Right.

You know, Crimea off in the distance.

Right.

I mean, it's a crucial location, as

you point out.

Is there a feeling

that you

are seeing sort of the actual event

or the prelude to the actual event?

Well, this

this probably is the actual event.

You know,

this is essentially

the extent of what Russia can throw at,

you know,

a city like Odessa

without significant escalation.

Of course,

there's a lot a lot farther

that that Russia can go.

But this is what they've been doing,

a combination of missile

and drone strikes

targeting cities all across the country.

Flashback nine, all across the country.

Go back

nine months

ago, Erin,

after the first attack

on the Kerch Bridge,

we saw the biggest

wave of strikes by Russia

since the war had begun.

The Kremlin warned that they would

also respond

after this latest Kerch Bridge strike.

And that that started last night,

some 24 hours

after that Ukrainian attack.

So here we are, two nights in a row.

Russia clearly sending the message

and a message of response to that attack.

You know, of course,

the Ukrainians took out this bridge

that was not just hugely important

as a vital supply route,

but also

hugely symbolic,

a pet project of Putin's

to connect

Russia to illegally annexed Crimea.

This is the Putin response.

This is the Kremlin response

to that attack.

Where it goes from here is unclear.

It might be over for now.

It could very well start up in just,

you know, at a moment's notice.

It's an extremely fluid situation are.

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