04/03/2022 21:37 (act 04/03/2022 21:40)
Clouds of dark smoke over the city of Odessa ©APA/AFP
Russian troops continued their attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine on Sunday. The destination was also the port city of Odessa on the Black Sea. The Defense Ministry in Moscow said ships and planes fired on an oil refinery and three fuel depots near Odessa. According to regional authorities, seven people were killed when the eastern city of Kharkiv was bombed.
The country’s second largest city, Kharkiv, had already been largely destroyed by the invaders. According to the judiciary, seven people died there as a result of artillery fire. The governor of Kharkiv had already spoken of “some” dead and 23 wounded. In a Russian attack on a hospital in eastern Rubishne, one person died and three others were injured, the region’s governor Serhiy Gajdaj said in the evening.
One person was also killed in a Russian attack in the southern Ukrainian town of Mykolaiv. Another 14 people were injured, including a 15-year-old, Governor Vitali Kim said on Telegram. There was also a bomb attack in the Black Sea town of Ochakiv, he added. There were also dead and wounded there, the exact number is unclear.
The target of an air attack had already been the metropolis of Odessa. As the city council announced, fires broke out in various parts of the city. Smoke can be seen over Odessa in photos. According to the city council, some missiles were intercepted by anti-aircraft defenses.
On Sunday afternoon, the Ukrainian government reported that a Russian missile also hit the town of Vasylkiv, near Kiev. The regional government building was hit and some were injured, he said.
The attacks on Mykolaiv and Vasylkiv were also confirmed by the Ministry of Defense in Moscow at night. A fuel depot northwest of Rivne was also hit by rockets, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. According to Ukrainian military information, fighting continued in the east. The bombing of cities in the Luhansk region continues. There are fights in Popasna and Rubishne.
Meanwhile, Russia again reported an explosion on its territory. “There was a crash, debris fell to the ground,” Yakovlevsky district chief Oleg Medvedev wrote on Sunday on the Telegram news channel. There were no injuries. Just a few days ago, there was an attack on an oil storage facility near the city of Belgorod, which the Russians say was carried out by Ukrainian attack helicopters.
According to Russian information, a total of 51 military installations, including four command posts and two missile defense systems, were hit in Ukraine on Sunday night. This information could not be independently verified. Moscow claims to only attack military targets in the neighboring country. Ukraine, on the other hand, accuses Russia of also bombing civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
According to Ukrainian sources, 2,694 people managed to escape the embattled cities on Sunday. According to estimates, around 100,000 residents are still in the city of Mariupol. In recent days there have been several attempts to reach Mariupol.
Russia once again accused Ukraine of not cooperating with the evacuation on Sunday night. The Russian Defense Ministry announced Sunday night that nearly 2,000 people had managed to escape Mariupol on their own in the last 24 hours. Relief convoys, however, were unable to reach the city on the Sea of Azov because of the Ukrainian bombing. For Monday, Russian troops, mediated by Turkey, agreed to another evacuation attempt. A total of half a million people have been brought to Russia from different parts of the country since the beginning of the war. Ukraine talks about kidnappings in this regard.