Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Russian military “stinking b*******” after airstrikes killed eight people, including a three-month-old baby, in the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Saturday.
According to Ukraine’s armed forces, two Russian missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings in Odesa. At least eight people were killed and 18 others injured in the attack.
The Russian defence ministry said it used high-precision missiles to destroy a logistics terminal in Odesa containing weapons supplied by the US and European nations.
A visibly emotional Zelenskyy reportedly called the Russians “stinking b*******” over the Odesa attack while addressing a press conference at a subway station in capital Kyiv.
Zelensky calls Russian military ‘stinky bastards’ after airstrike kills 3-month-old in Odesa.
President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t hold back during his press conference held hours after Russian missiles killed eight and injured 18 people in Odesa.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 23, 2022
The missile strikes on Odesa, the first since the start of April, come in the wake of a top Russian commander’s statement that Russia plans to control the whole of southern Ukraine.
ATTEMPT TO STORM MARIUPOL PLANT
Russian forces also renewed their onslaught on the on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and were also trying to storm it, in an apparent reversal of tactics. Two days earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin had given an order not to send troops in but instead to lay siege to the plant.
Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with over a thousand civilians sheltering in its underground tunnels.
While Putin has declared victory in the battle for Mariupol, Zelenskyy has asserted that the devastated city “continues to resist” despite being reduced to a smoking ruin after relentless Russian attacks.
TOP US OFFICIALS IN UKRAINE
Zelenskyy said the country’s army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city. But he asserted that Ukraine hoped to secure heavy weapons at talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of defence Lloyd Austin on Sunday. The munitions are vital to fight back against the invading Russian forces, he added.
“As soon as we have (more weapons), as soon as there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately retake this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenskyy said.
Mariupol has been a key Russian objective and has taken on outsize importance in the war. Completing its capture would give Russia its biggest victory yet, as it would allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and also deprive Ukraine of a vital port city.
READ | Lack of traceability of weapons supplied to Ukraine could be a concern for US
‘PEACE TALKS OVER IF…’
At the press conference, Zelenskyy again renewed calls for a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war. “I think that whoever started this war will be able to end it,” he quipped.
The Ukrainian president stated that Kyiv will pull out of peace talks with Moscow if Russia kills the Ukrainian forces still holding out in Mariupol’s vast Azovstal plant.
“If our men are killed in Mariupol, Ukraine will withdraw from any negotiation process,” Zelenskyy said.
READ | UK PM Johnson says Ukraine peace talks are doomed because of ‘crocodile’ Putin
ALL-OUT WAR IN DONBAS
Meanwhile, in the new, main theatre of war in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, Russia said it took control of several villages. Russian forces also claimed to have destroyed 11 Ukrainian military targets overnight, including three artillery warehouses.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Ukrainian forces were pulling back to preserve their units in the face of an intensifying barrage on all cities in the region.
Ukrainian forces fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk said in a Facebook post they had repelled 12 Russian attacks on Saturday, destroying four tanks and 16 other armoured vehicles as well as five artillery systems.
READ | Why Russia’s ‘complete focus’ in Ukraine war has now shifted to liberating Donbas region
ATTACKS ELSEWHERE
Three people were killed and seven were wounded by Russian shelling in the eastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday, the region’s governor said.
The governor of a Russian border region said on Saturday that Ukraine had shelled a crossing point on Russia’s territory, causing a fire but no casualties.
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)