July 23 Odesa Strike: Pure Terrorism, No Other Word for It

July 23, 2023March 29, 2026

Last night I tracked reports from observers covering the air raid — and this was probably the largest missile and artillery strike on southern Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. Final figures from last night aren’t in yet, but what the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already published says enough. Some conclusions can be drawn right now. The most important one: the July 23 strike on Odesa has nothing to do with the “grain deal” — not even remotely.

The missiles hit the old city center, residential buildings. They landed on apartment blocks, a church, everything that has zero military or economic value. That is pure, undisguised terrorism. Nothing else. Odesa took the worst of it, but plenty hit other areas too. Odesa was targeted with cruise missiles; Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro got shelled with artillery.

No Amount of “Concern” Will Stop This

The attack on Odesa’s center is one more proof that no statement of “condemnation” or “deep concern” will get through to the aggressor. Everyone needs to finally understand: trying to evaluate what Russia does through the lens of ethics or universal human values means losing before you even start. The only thing Russians understand is shock and awe — crushing, precise strikes against them. Nothing else works.

Those preparing documents for an international tribunal specifically covering last night need to note one important detail. The attack came in multiple waves, with extensive use of reconnaissance drones. Aircraft and ships didn’t fire everything in one salvo — they launched, waited for damage assessment from the first wave, then adjusted and launched again. And every single one of those waves was directed at residential areas in the city center. Any talk of “imprecise missiles” is no longer possible.

They Felt Good About It

This was the result the enemy wanted. Target corrections didn’t change the nature of the targets — they only helped hit them better. On top of that, Russian state TV propagandist Skabeyeva went on air and openly stated that she was watching Odesa burn with “a feeling of enormous moral satisfaction.” The video is already circulating online. This means it isn’t just the military-political leadership of the Rotten Federation issuing criminal orders every day, with soldiers carrying them out. It means this is what their civilian society wants – it’s a demand, and they army is meeting it.

This is an act of unambiguous terrorism. And as everyone knows, you don’t negotiate with terrorists — you destroy them. They will keep doing this until they get a real response. Until they see the same thing happening to them, without a television screen between them and the fire.

The Organizations That Failed

The July 23 strike on Odesa also destroyed buildings with UNESCO heritage status. In a war this brutal, UNESCO might seem like the last thing worth mentioning — and honestly, that’s fair. Every international organization operating under the UN umbrella — the WHO, the IAEA, UNESCO, and the UN itself — has proven completely useless. Their staff spend their time warming chairs and burning through budgets. When a major crisis lands squarely in their field of responsibility, they’re nowhere. At best, you get a carefully worded statement of concern.

But here’s the thing: destroying internationally protected sites constitutes a separate category of war crime. The enemy currently believes it will never be held accountable for anything. That’s exactly what Milošević and Karadžić believed, and before them — the leadership of the Third Reich.