A Russian missile strike killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens more, including four children, in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Monday afternoon, local authorities said.
The dead include seven police officers, two local residents, and one medic, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration. Children were among those injured and hospitalized.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down a Russian Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile over the Black Sea port city around noon, but the missile’s debris caused deaths and injuries on the ground.
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the missile landed in a parking lot, damaging a university, an administrative building and an apartment complex.
“These are not random strikes – they are deliberate, symbolic ones. After calls and meetings with Putin, and all the false media rumors about a supposed ‘restraint’ in attacks,” Zelensky wrote on social media, referring to recent phone calls that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump made with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Russia is showing what it is truly interested in: only war. And this message should be heard across the world, from the halls where the G20 members meet to every capital around the globe,” Zelensky added.
Videos shared by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed graphic scenes of bodies and body parts scattered at the missile strike site.
Russia’s military did not directly address the Odesa strike but claimed its missile forces and tactical aviation targeted multiple locations across Ukraine on Monday, including military airfields, energy facilities, drone storage depots and concentrations of enemy troops.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office launched an investigation into violations of the laws and customs of war.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force also reported shooting down an Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone approaching Odesa. The air force condemned the strike as an example of Russia’s continued attacks on densely populated cities, knowing it would result in civilian casualties.
Earlier, Russia launched two Iskander-M missiles at northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy, killing at least 11 people and injuring 84 in a strike on an apartment building.
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