At 5:16 p.m., an air alert was announced in Odessa and the Odesa region due to the threat of a missile attack. Local channels in "Telegram" reported a hit in the town of Chernomorsi, near Odessa, quoted by BTA.
Just when the alarm was announced, the Bulgarian delegation was at a concert in the Odessa Opera House, everyone is in hiding.
Today in Odessa, the Nineteenth World Meeting of the Bulgarian Media was opened, which is organized by BTA and takes place hybridly - on-site in Odessa, Bolgrad, Izmail and Zarya (Kamchik) and in an electronic environment. The meeting is taking place in Odessa as a sign of support for the Bulgarian community in Odessa region.
The Bulgarian delegation includes the director general of BTA Kiril Valchev, the director general of the Bulgarian National Radio Milen Mitev, the chairman of the Council for Electronic Media Gabriela Naplatanova, the rector of Sofia University Prof. Dr. Georgi Valchev, the consul general of Bulgaria in Odessa Svetoslav Ivanov, the Executive Director of the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad Raina Mandjukova, the Deputy General Director of BTA Evgenia Drumeva, as well as representatives of Bulgarian media and Bulgarian-language media from various countries around the world.
There are over 150,000 Bulgarians in the region and they are the third largest community according to the official census in Ukraine in 2001. About 50-60 thousand Bulgarians live in the city of Odessa itself. The largest compact Bulgarian population is concentrated in the Bolgrad, Izmail and Belgorodnist regions.