Russian strike kills 3 people in Odesa
By VOA News April 30, 2024
A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed three people early Wednesday, according to a Ukrainian official. Three people were also injured in the strike, the official said.
Ukraine had attacked Crimea on Tuesday with U.S- supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS. The long-range missiles hit locations across the Crimean Peninsula.
"We need a significant speed-up of deliveries to strengthen the capabilities of our soldiers tangibly," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday. "It is not Russian air bombs and assault operations that should dominate the front line, but our Ukrainian initiative — our air defense, our artillery, our drones."
The president said what Ukraine is "really counting on" is "the promptness of the U.S. deliveries" that should be "felt in the destroyed logistics of the occupiers, in their fear to deploy in any part of the occupied territory ... everywhere where Russia is pushing and where we have to push it back. And also everywhere where new strike threats may arise."
U.S. aid promised to Ukraine has been bogged down in political wrangling for months but has recently been approved by lawmakers to help Ukraine beat back the Russian forces.
The governor of Ukraine's southern region of Odesa declared a day of mourning Tuesday following a Russian missile attack that killed four people and injured more than 20 others.
Governor Oleh Kiper said the Russian attack hit one a popular part of the city where locals and tourists go to walk and play sports. Kiper said a fifth person died after suffering a stroke linked to the attack.
"Monsters. Beasts. Savages. Scum. I don't know what else to say," Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov said in a video posted on Telegram. "People are going for a walk by the sea, and they are shooting and killing."
In his nightly video address late Monday, Zelenskyy offered his condolences to the families of those killed and said the wounded were receiving care.
The governor of Ukraine's Kharkiv region said Tuesday a Russian attack on the regional capital killed at least one person and injured several others.
In Dnipropetrovsk, the regional governor said two houses were damaged by Russian artillery and drone attacks, but no one was injured.
Zelenskyy reiterated in his Monday address his call for urgent deliveries of weapons from allies.
"Prompt assistance and protection of life that is timely and courageous enough are what help us all in Ukraine to endure," he said.
Zelenskyy said that on Monday he discussed the significance of timely delivery of weapons to Ukraine with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
"Timely and sufficient decisions on air defense for Ukraine are what we need right now to protect lives," he said.
During the visit in Kyiv, Stoltenberg said that help is on the way to boost Ukraine's war effort against Russia and that allies "are working hard to meet Ukraine's urgent needs."
Stoltenberg said despite Ukraine's losses, it was "not too late" for the country to win its defensive war against Russia if more weapons arrive quickly.
"Ukraine has been outgunned for months, forced to ration its ammunition. ... But it's not too late for Ukraine to prevail," he said at a news conference alongside Zelenskyy.
Stoltenberg criticized monthslong delays in U.S. military aid to Ukraine, adding that such delays had "serious consequences on the battlefield."
The NATO chief acknowledged that the alliance's member countries have also failed to deliver in good time what they promised to Ukraine.
"The lack of ammunition has allowed the Russians to push forward along the front line. Lack of air defense has made it possible for more Russian missiles to hit their targets, and the lack of deep-strike capabilities has made it possible for the Russians to concentrate more forces," Stoltenberg said.
Ukraine and its Western partners are racing against time to deploy critical new military aid that can stave off Russian advances across eastern areas, as well as repel drone and missile attacks.
Zelenskyy said new Western supplies have started arriving, but slowly.
"This process must be speeded up," he said, adding, "some things have started to arrive." He declined to go into detail.
Some information for this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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