ODESA, Ukraine: Russian on Friday hit Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port city, with missiles, killing as many as 20 people including rescue workers in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “vile”.
Bodies covered by blankets strewn on the street were seen, while images from officials showed exhausted emergency service workers daubed with blood and dirt dousing flames and treating injured colleagues.
According to local authorities, Russian aerial bombardments struck ambulances, residential buildings and a gas pipeline, leaving at least 20 people dead and injuring another 73 people, including rescuers.
Zelensky said Russian forces launched a double-tap attack on the port hub, with the second projectile hitting rescue workers at the site.
The Russian government launched Iskander missiles from Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and targeted Odessa, city officials said.
Presidential aide Andriy Yermak termed the Russian “terror” in Odesa a sign of weakness of the enemy, which, they said, is fighting Ukrainian civilians at a time when it cannot guarantee security for people on its own territory.
There was no immediate comment on the attack from Russia, which routinely targets shipping hubs with drones and missiles.
The airstrike came on the first day of Russia’s presidential election, where voting is also underway in several occupied regions of Ukraine.
UN SG Antonio Guterres and more than 50 member states criticized Russia for holding the vote in parts of Ukraine, with Guterres saying that the “attempted illegal annexation” of those regions has “no validity” under international law, according to spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said he would not comment on criticism of “our internal affairs.”
Friday’s attack was the latest in a series of deadly shootings between Kiev and Moscow as voting began across Russia.
Kiev said two people were killed in a Russian drone strike in the Vinnytsia region of central Ukraine, and a woman was killed in shelling in the front-line region of Zaporizhzhia.
National police said a 52-year-old man and his 53-year-old wife were killed in a Russian drone strike in the Vinnytsia region, more than 400 kilometers from the front line.
Ukrainian Governor Ivan Fedorov announced that a 76-year-old woman was killed when Russian shrapnel hit her garden in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, which Russia has annexed and claims it partially controls.
The increase in attacks on Russia’s border areas comes after Russian forces captured the town of Avdiivka, a few kilometers north of Donetsk, last month.
Ukraine’s military commander said on Friday that Russia had launched a wave of attacks to push further into the region.
