site.btaBulgarian Woman from Reni: We Lived through Terrible Night for the First Time since Beginning of War

Nina Ivanova, deputy chair of the Otechestvo Bulgarian Association in the Ukrainian town of Reni, told BTA that for the first time since the beginning of the war by Russia against Ukraine the town had been shelled heavily and the citizens lived through a terrible night.

"For the first time since the beginning of the war we lived through a very frightful night. From 3 am until 5.30 am there were non stop explosions, around ten. They were very loud. We got scared. My son brought my grandchildren from Odessa at the beginning of last week, when the shelling began there. In Reni it was safer at the time. However, last night our town was attacked with drones. The children got scared and were very difficult to calm down", Ivanova told BTA.

During the night of July 24 Reni was attacked by 15 drones. Six people have been wounded, of whom four have been hospitalized. The number of those affected is yet unclear.

The Bulgarian community in the Odessa Region is the third largest, at 150,000 according to the 2001 census.

Some 8500 Bulgarians live in Reni and the surrounding area.

The Ukrainian town is 24 km away from the Romanian city of Galati.