About 15 drones attacked Odessa late last night from the Black Sea, loud explosions were heard, the chairman of the Odessa regional military administration Oleg Kiper reported on the Telegram application.
The seaside cities of Yuzhny and Chernomorsk are under threat of attack, local channels on Telegram reported.
Regional authorities are urging residents to take shelter in bomb shelters.
The sirens were activated at 10:54 p.m.
The Bulgarians in the Odessa region number over 150,000 people and are the third largest according to the latest official census in Ukraine. About 50-60 thousand Bulgarians live in the city of Odessa itself. The largest compact Bulgarian population is concentrated in the Bolgradsky, Izmailsky and Belgorod-Dniester regions.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Zaporizhia regional military administration, Ivan Fyodorov, announced on the Telegram application that five people have been killed and three more have been injured so far as a result of a massive Russian attack with cluster bombs on Zaporizhia, reported
Damage was caused to apartment blocks, a shop and a market.
The sirens were activated from 9:12 p.m. to 10:55 p.m.
All emergency services have been activated to eliminate the consequences.
According to the latest official census in Ukraine, 27,764 Bulgarians live in the Zaporizhia region. The Bulgarian community in the region is concentrated in the Primorsky, Melitopolsky, Berdyansky and Priazovsky regions, which from the beginning of the war to the present are occupied. The first settlement of Bulgarian settlers from Bessarabia in the Azov region dates back to 1861/1862.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed that the deputy from the ruling party “Servant of the People“ Denis Maslov be appointed as the new Minister of Justice, announced the deputy from the Verkhovna Rada from the party “Voice“ Yaroslav Zheleznyak, TASS reported.
Until recently, the Ministry of Justice was headed by German Galushchenko, but he was removed from office for his participation in corruption schemes of businessman Timur Mindich. Zelensky proposed Maslov's candidacy at a meeting with the “Servant of the People“ faction yesterday. Maslov is the chairman of the parliamentary committee on legal policy.
The deputy from the party “European Solidarity“ Alexei Goncharenko also announced on his channel in Telegram about Maslov's candidacy for the post of Minister of Justice. According to him, no candidacies for the post of Minister of Energy to replace the dismissed Svetlana Grinchuk were discussed.
On November 12, against the backdrop of the anti-corruption scandal, applications were submitted to the Rada for the dismissal of Galushchenko and Grinchuk. On November 19, the parliament dismissed them from office. According to Ukrainian media, Galushchenko and Grinchuk live in a civil marriage, TASS reports.
The Russian parliament voted to increase taxes for persons designated as “foreign agents“ - a status used to persecute dissidents, DPA reported.
In the future, they will have to pay the highest tax rate of 30%, instead of the average of 13% to 22%.
“Those who betrayed our country should not receive tax benefits "reliefs," State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in Telegrad.
The term "foreign agent" has been used by Russian authorities since 2012 to stigmatize opposition figures and other dissidents.
Thanks to a series of legislative changes, the Justice Ministry is no longer required to provide evidence that a person has received funding from abroad when officially designating them as a foreign agent.
The current list includes more than 1,000 organizations and individuals accused of being "under foreign influence."
Those labeled as "foreign agents" face severe consequences, including being banned from running for office or observing elections.
They are prohibited from working for state institutions and are denied income from rent or interest on savings accounts, as well as royalties or other income from intellectual activity.
When making public statements, including when posting on social media, they must clearly identify themselves as “foreign agents“, otherwise they face heavy fines.