site.btaExplosions Heard in Odesa

Loud explosions were heard in Odesa minutes after an air alert sounded on Thursday evening, local Telegram channels reported.

The air raid alert was issued at 8:38 p.m.

A ballistic missile has been fired from the Crimean peninsula, according to Telegram reports.

Odesa Province is home to the third largest community of expatriate Bulgarians, numbering more than 150,000 people, according to an official population census in Ukraine in 2001. Between 50,000 and 60,000 Bulgarians live in the provincial capital, Odesa. Bulgarians in the province are concentrated in the districts of Bolhrad, Izmail, and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi.