Russian missile attack kills five in Odesa, narrowly missing Zelensky

Five people were killed in a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port of Odesa on Wednesday during a visit to the city by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The attack targeted Odesa’s port infrastructure, killing five people and injuring several more, Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk told news outlet Ukrainska Pravda, adding that an investigation into the “war crime” was underway.

Zelensky told journalists gathered at Odesa’s port that he and Mitsotakis had witnessed the explosion and that the attack proved that Russia “doesn’t care where it strikes”, in what the Greek PM called “a very intense experience”. CNN reported that the missile had exploded just 500 metres from the leaders’ motorcade.

Regional military spokesperson Natalia Humenyuk denied that the attack was specifically linked to Zelensky’s visit, saying that it was instead linked to the “terror” that Russia was “carrying out quite methodically”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had successfully conducted a “high-precision missile strike” on a hangar in Odesa’s port area, which it said was used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine for boat storage.

The attack comes just days after a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Odesa killed 12 people, including five children, in one of Russia’s largest attacks on civilians in weeks.