At least eight civilians — including a 3-month-old baby — were killed Saturday after Russian forces fired multiple cruise missiles at Odessa, Ukraine’s largest Black Sea port.
Russian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried Russia’s latest attack on civilians.
“When the war began, this child was a month old,” Zelensky told reporters during a Saturday press conference. “What is going on? Stinkybastards.”
The missiles slammed into residential buildings, said Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff — who added that more deaths are likely.
“Nothing is sacred,” Yermak wrote on Telegram of the attack, which came during the Eastern Orthodox observation of Holy Saturday. “The evil will be punished.”
Firefighters walk past an apartment building damaged by Russian shelling in Odesa, Ukraine, Saturday, April 23, 2022. AP
This photograph shows a damaged building in Odessa, southern Ukraine on April 23, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
People leave a residential area following shelling in Ukrainian city of Odessa, on April 23, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
One of the casualties was a 3-month-old baby.
The BBC posted video footage of thick black smoke billowing from a 14-story apartment building in the wake of the strike as rescue workers tended to residents with head wounds.
One resident told reporters that he and his elderly mother had been forced to leap out of a second-floor window to escape.
People leave a residential area following shelling in Ukrainian city of Odessa, on April 23, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
At least 8 people were killed in the strike.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned the attack on a city that has — until now — escaped the worst of Russia’s continuing assault on Ukraine.
“The only aim of Russian missile strikes on Odessa is terror,” Kuleba posted on Twitter. “Russia must be designated a state sponsor of terrorism … We need a wall between civilization and barbarians striking peaceful cities with missiles.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that it conducted air strikes in the Odessa area – but claimed that a logistics base at a nearby Ukrainian military airfield was the intended target.
The strike on the crucial port city gave credence to Zelensky’s warning that Putin has set his sights on Moldova, the Soviet breakaway state located just to Odessa’s west.
“We are the first in line. And who will come next?” Zelensky asked Friday in his nightly address.
