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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