KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday called for the world to help Kyiv defeat “Russian evil” as the death toll from a drone strike on Odesa rose to 12, including five children.
The strike on an apartment block in the southern port city early Saturday morning partially destroyed several floors, leaving more than a dozen people under the rubble.
The attack killed five children, including two babies less than a year old, according to statements by Zelensky and the regional governor.
“Mark, who was not even three years old, Yelyzaveta, eight months old, and Timofey, four months old,” Zelensky said, naming the youngest victims of the strike in a post on Telegram.
“Ukrainian children are Russia’s military targets,” he added.
Rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Sunday evening, more than 36 hours after the strike, although Zelensky said the search and rescue operation had been called off.
He had pleaded Saturday with Kyiv’s Western allies to supply more air-defense systems as Russia continued to pound Ukraine with drones, missiles and artillery fire in the war’s third year.
Kyiv is currently on the back foot, following recent battlefield gains by Russia.
Zelensky said this latest strike underlined the importance of supporting Ukraine. A stalled $60-billion aid package from the United States has left Kyiv facing ammunition shortages.
“We are waiting for supplies that are vitally necessary, we are waiting, in particular, for an American solution,” Zelensky said later Sunday in his evening address.
Russia had lost 15 military aircraft since the beginning of February, he added. “The more opportunities we have to shoot down Russian aircraft... the more Ukrainian lives will be saved.”
There was no comment on the Odesa attack in Moscow. It denies targeting civilians despite evidence of Russian strikes on residential areas and the United Nations having verified at least 10,000 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukraine’s emergency services said they had found the bodies of families huddled together as they sifted through the rubble Sunday.
“A mother tried to cover her eight-month-old baby with her body. They were found in a tight embrace,” the agency said on Telegram.
Odesa Governor Oleg Kiper said the bodies of a brother and sister, aged 10 and eight, were also found together in the debris on Sunday evening.
In other incidents, Ukraine’s interior ministry reported one death and three people wounded in the southern Kherson region; and police said an airstrike on a residential quarter of Kurakhove, a town in the eastern Donetsk region, had wounded 16 people.
Russian military bloggers also reported a massive Ukrainian drone attack on the annexed peninsula of Crimea overnight.
Moscow said it shot down 38 Ukrainian drones, while the Rybar Telegram channel, close to Russia’s armed forces, said one had hit a pipeline at an oil depot, the presumed target of the attack.
Kyiv has hit several Russian oil facilities in recent months in what it has called fair retribution for Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.
A senior Ukrainian commander also accused Russian forces of dropping explosives containing an unspecified chemical substance over the battlefield, and said the situation on the front lines was “complicated, but under control.”
Meanwhile, the fallout from a leaked audio recording of German military officials looked set to sink relations between Moscow and Berlin even lower on Sunday.
A 38-minute recording of German officers discussing the possible use of German-made Taurus missiles by Ukraine and their potential impact was posted on Russian social media late Friday.
Russia has demanded an explanation from Berlin.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Sunday that Moscow was “using this recording to destabilize and unsettle us,” adding that this was part of Putin’s “information war.”
Zelensky defiant as Ukraine mourns victims of Odesa drone strike
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Zelensky defiant as Ukraine mourns victims of Odesa drone strike
- The attack killed five children, including two babies less than a year old, according to statements by Zelensky and the regional governor
Russia says Ukraine attacked Putin’s home, Kyiv calls this ‘lie’
- Zelensky called Russia’s claim “complete fabrication” designed to derail peace process, suggested Moscow was preparing to intensify bombardment of Ukraine
KYIV: Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of having fired dozens of drones at one of President Vladimir Putin’s homes, an accusation that Ukraine called a “lie” aimed at undermining US-led efforts to end the war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who does not typically announce drone strikes, said Ukraine had fired “91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles” at Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region between late Sunday and early Monday, all of which were shot down.
“Given the complete degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has shifted to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be reconsidered,” Lavrov said, without elaborating.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met with US President Donald Trump on Sunday for talks on ending the war, called Russia’s claim “a complete fabrication” designed to derail the peace process and suggested Moscow was preparing to intensify its bombardment of Ukraine.
“Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.
Russia’s accusation comes at a pivotal moment in the peace process.
Ukraine says it has agreed to 90 percent of a US-drafted peace plan — including the issue of post-war security guarantees — though the issue of territory in a post-war settlement remains unresolved.
Russia, which has stayed silent about what parts of the US plan it has agreed to, said Monday it was still committed to the peace process but would “revise” its position in light of the alleged drone attack.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarise the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.
Kyiv and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.
Territory main sticking point
Trump has held talks with both sides in recent days, including a phone call with Putin on Monday that the White House described as “positive.”
During talks with Zelensky on Sunday, Trump offered Kyiv long-sought-after security guarantees for a period of 15 years, according to Kyiv.
But the issue of territory and the future of the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine remain unresolved, Zelensky said.
Zelensky said Monday that Kyiv was ready for “any” format of meetings — including with Putin if necessary — but said he still did not think the Kremlin chief wanted peace.
The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and establish a demilitarised area.
But the Kremlin has shown no sign of compromise.
Putin said Monday that Russia was pressing ahead with its plan to capture four Ukrainian regions it announced the annexation of in 2022 and that his troops were “confidently advancing.”
Moscow on Monday said it took another village, Dibrova, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
