Ukraine: at least 20 dead in one of the deadliest Russian attacks in Odessa
A deadly Russian missile strike fell Friday on Odessa, a large port city in southern Ukraine that has already been targeted twice in recent days.
At least 20 people were killed and 70 injured during this attack, one of the deadliest in this town.
This photograph taken and released by Ukrainian emergency services on March 15, 2024 shows rescuers carrying their injured colleague following a missile attack in Odessa.
AFP - HANDOUT
By: RFI Follow
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With our correspondent in Ukraine
,
Stéphanie Siohan
It was around 10 a.m. local time when a Russian ballistic missile hit a residential area in the southern city of Odessa, causing chaos and fires.
Firefighters and rescue workers were on the scene and fifteen minutes after the first impact, a second Iskander missile crashed in the same location, wreaking havoc on the emergency response.
Over the course of the day, the toll rose to 20 dead and more than 70 injured, after what appears to be a double strike, a tactic sadly tested by the Russian army for years on the towns of
Syria
.
In Odessa, civilians were killed, but at the end of the day, sources close to the municipality revealed that several political-military figures from the Black Sea port had died.
Among the victims are the former deputy mayor who became a soldier, a former regional police chief and the commander of a Ukrainian battalion called Tsunami.
These men had undoubtedly met in a discreet location in the city which would nevertheless have been revealed to Russian intelligence by local agents.
“
Right answer
”
Often, in
Ukraine
, Russian strikes target identified targets, civilian or military, and the Russian army hardly cares about the collateral damage inflicted on the population.
Friday evening,
Volodymyr Zelensky
, aware that the Russian attack on Odessa targeted several local political-military leaders, denounced a “despicable” attack and promised a “just response” from the Ukrainian forces while, against a backdrop of Western procrastination, Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense capabilities cannot protect the skies of all the country's cities.
This is the third fatal attack since the beginning of March in Odessa.
On March 3, a drone strike on an apartment building killed 12 people, including five children, and on March 6 a bombing killed five people, at a time when President
Zelensky
and Greek Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis
were in travel to this city.
Also read: Ukraine: the death toll from a Russian strike in Odessa rises to 14 dead and 46 injured
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