site.btaOne Killed, Three Injured in Overnight Drone Attack on Ukraine’s Izmail District

One person was killed and three others were injured in an overnight drone attack on the Izmail district in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region, the operational headquarters of the Izmail District State Administration said on its Facebook page.

Transport infrastructure facilities were damaged in the attack. “Eight trucks carrying food caught fire. Firefighters quickly extinguished the fires,” the Odesa regional branch of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a message on Telegram.

The air raid alert began at 11:20 p.m. on August 28 and lasted until 1:46 a.m. on August 29. More than 20 drones attacked populated areas in southern Odesa region, including Zatoka, Tatarbunary, Kiliya, Vylkove, Izmail and others.

Rositsa Kirova, Tourism Committee Chair of the 52nd National Assembly of Bulgaria, was in Izmail at the time of the attack. She was visiting Ukraine as part of events marking the 205th anniversary of the founding of Bolhrad.

During the overnight attack, National Service for Protection (NSO) officers accompanying the Bulgarian MP reacted immediately, escorting her to a shelter and assisting other people staying at the hotel.

From August 24 to 28, an official Bulgarian delegation held meetings with members of the Bulgarian community in Izmail, Bolhrad, the Bessarabian community, Bolhrad district, Odesa and the village of Kamchyk in Sarata municipality.

The meetings were organized with the assistance of Bulgaria’s Consul General in Odesa, Svetoslav Ivanov. The Bulgarian delegation also included Bulgaria’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine, Zlatin Krastev, and Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev.

More than 150,000 Bulgarians live in Odesa Region, according to the latest official Ukrainian census, making them the region's third-largest ethnic community. Around 50,000-60,000 Bulgarians live in Odesa, while the largest compact Bulgarian communities are concentrated in Bolhrad, Izmail and Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi districts.