Photo: ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / Getty Images
At least eight people, including a three-month-old baby, were killed this Saturday during new Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s main port city, Odessa.
According to the head of the Ukrainian government office, Andriy Yermak, others 12 were injured when the Russians attacked a residential building.
The attack comes one day after the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had started a “second phase” of its “military operation” (as it is only allowed call him in Russia to the invasion) in which they would have as objective, according to what he said, to take the entire Ukrainian coast.
“Nothing is sacred,” wrote Yermak about the Russian attack, referring to the celebration this Saturday of the vigil of Orthodox Easter, the most important festival of that church.
“Evil will be punished”, he added.
Russia has not yet commented on the bombing, but generally, despite the numerous evidence and deaths , has denied attacking civilians.
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What happened
Images of the bombed building, which have been verified by the BBC, show thick black smoke rising into the air .
Anton Herashchenko, assistant to the Interior Minister, said that several missiles hit residential blocks and that a man died when his car caught fire.
The minister or Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, condemned Russia for the attack.
“The only objective of the Russian missile attacks in Odessa is terror. Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and treated accordingly. (…) We need a wall between civilization and the barbarians attacking peaceful cities with missiles”, he wrote on Twitter.
by Caroline Davies, from Odessa
The apartment block of Plants are still smoking here, in a residential area of Odessa.
The side of the building is blackened after what appears to be an impact to the lower floors.
The parking lot in front is covered in broken glass and debris. Several vehicles are severely damaged.
A man we spoke to outside the block said he was in his parents’ apartment on the floor 12 when there was a big explosion.
To get out, they had to push aside the fragments of a door. He says that he and his mother had to jump from the first floor to escape.
Rescue teams are on the scene, with several fire trucks deployed to douse the flames several floors above.
The BBC team counted at least five ambulances at the scene, with several victims suffering head injuries. At least one person was carried out on a stretcher.
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