A Russian bombing left at least 20 people dead this Friday in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Ukrainian authorities have also reported more than 70 injuries. Among the deceased are two members of the emergency teams who were operating at the scene of the attack.
It is unknown if there were any military objectives in the impact zone. A councilor from the Odessa City Council has confirmed that among the dead is Oleksander Hostishchev, commander of a prominent battalion of the Interior Ministry’s special forces. Former deputy mayor Serhii Tetiukhin has also lost his life.
This Friday, Russia followed its usual strategy of carrying out the attack in two phases, with the arrival of a first missile and, after a few minutes, a second that corrects the coordinates of the first rocket or ensures that the target is completely destroyed. In many cases, emergency services arrive at the scene before the second projectile hits. This is what has caused the death of two emergency services professionals and has left seven other members of the rescue teams injured.
The High Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Odessa reported that the bombing was carried out with Iskander ballistic missiles fired from the occupied Crimean peninsula, about 200 kilometers from the Ukrainian port city. The iskander is one of the most destructive weapons in the Russian arsenal. The alarms that warn the population of a possible bombing had not been activated at the time of impact, as has happened on other occasions when it comes to rockets that can fly above the speed of sound.
The Ukrainian army claims that 10 residential buildings have been destroyed, in addition to a secondary gas pipeline, a gas station and a recreation area. It is the second attack with numerous fatalities that Odessa has suffered this March. Twelve people, including five minors, died on March 2 in a drone offensive. Three days later, a missile hit a building just 300 meters from a state visit in which the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, were present.
The bombing in Odessa happened shortly after 11 in the morning. A few hours earlier, a Russian drone hit a residential building in Vinnitsia, in the center of the country, causing the death of two civilians.
Odessa is Ukraine’s largest seaport, the main outlet for merchant traffic on the Black Sea, especially after the Russian occupation in 2022 of the Azov Sea port cities of Mariupol and Berdiansk. Its strategic importance has kept it a target for the invading army, especially in 2023, when its port infrastructure was periodically hit. French President Emmanuel Macron stated on March 7 in a meeting with the leaders of French political parties that both Odessa and kyiv could once again be future targets for Russian conquest. Macron noted that if Russia took Odessa, French troops could be forced to intervene in the war. This port city, founded by Tsarina Catherine the Great, is a symbol of Russian nationalism. Its position, close to Crimea, but also to the territory of the province of Kherson occupied by Russia (100 kilometers away), makes it especially vulnerable to air attacks, but also to a hypothetical maritime landing.
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