Zelensky: ‘Targeted’ strike in Odesa region – At least 21 dead

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his speech last night that the Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the Odesa region, which killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more, was not an accident, but a targeted attack.

He spoke of a terrorist act and added that the missile used is designed to hit aircraft carriers and other warships. Russia, Mr. Zelensky said, has fired more than 3,000 missiles into Ukraine since the war began on February 24, not counting artillery shells or other weapons.

So far it has been confirmed that 21 people living in the building have been killed and another 40 injured, Mr Zelenskiy said, adding “unfortunately, the death toll is rising”.

“It was a simple apartment building with about 160 people, ordinary people, civilians, living inside,” he said in the announcement. No weapons or military equipment were stored in the building, “as Russian propagandists and officials always tell us about such attacks,” he insisted.

Besides, a dozen Russian missiles hit the city of Mykolayiv “within one night and one morning,” the Ukrainian president said, offering his condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

“This atrocity underlines how right our partners were when they decided to support Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that no state should be left alone “in the face of such evil”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, for his part, accused Russia of waging war against civilians and called on the country’s partners via Twitter to “give us modern missile defense systems as soon as possible” in order to “help us save lives and put end of this war”.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that a refinery in the city of Lisitsansk, the focus of heavy fighting in recent days, had fallen into the hands of Russian troops and pro-Russian separatists. The Ukrainian side denied it.

Lisitsansk is the last stronghold of Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk region of the Donbas basin, as eastern Ukraine is known, which Moscow is trying to bring under its full control.

Powerful explosions in Mykolife

Strong explosions were heard in the early hours of the morning in the Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv, announced its mayor, Oleksandr Senkevich, via the Telegram platform.

“Strong explosions are heard in the city! Stay in shelters!”, emphasized Mr. Senkevic.

He did not specify what caused the explosions. However, just before they started, air defense sirens sounded in the periphery.