In an earlier provisional report by the Ukrainian government, there were talk of at least six deaths. A three-month-old baby is among the dead, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said on the Telegram online service. Before Zelenskyy’s press conference, the Ukrainian Air Force reported on the online network Facebook that the Russian army had fired TU-95 rockets from the Caspian Sea at Odessa. Two rockets hit a “military installation” and two other residential buildings. Two more missiles could be intercepted by the Ukrainian air defense.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that the sole purpose of the rocket attacks on Odessa was “terror”. The Defense Ministry in Moscow, meanwhile, said the Russian military had destroyed a Ukrainian army weapons depot near Odessa with “high-precision missiles”. A “significant” arsenal of weapons delivered from the US and European countries was stored there.
Russian Major General Rustam Minnekayev announced on Friday that the aim of the “second phase” of the military operation in Ukraine was to conquer Donbass and the south. In addition to a land connection with the annexed Crimea peninsula, this would also allow for better support for pro-Russian separatists in Transnistria, the Republic of Moldova, he said. These statements, distributed by Russian news agencies, indicate that Moscow also intends to conquer Odessa, in addition to taking the port city of Mariupol, which has been hotly contested for weeks.
Russia confirmed rocket attacks on targets in Odessa on Saturday night. A logistics terminal at a military airfield was hit on Saturday, where a “large delivery” of weapons from the United States and European countries was stored, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said, according to Interfax news agency in Moscow.
The Russian military also killed depots with rockets and artillery weapons, ammunition and fuel, as well as up to 200 fighters in attacks in Ukraine, Konashenkov said. The information cannot initially be independently verified.
In Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, two people were killed and two others were injured in the Zolote settlement, Governor Serhiy Hajday said via the Telegram news service. The embattled cities of Popazna, Rubishne and Sieverodonetsk were bombed by artillery and air.
The pipes are constantly damaged, which makes the supply of the rest of the population, especially water, questionable. According to the information, more than 110 people were evacuated from the mentioned cities.
According to the regional administration, three people died and seven were injured in the neighboring Donetsk region on Friday. In the Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Synyehubov reported two dead and 19 wounded as a result of 56 attacks in the last 24 hours. According to authorities, eight people were injured by shelling in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region.
Due to the tense situation, the curfew was reinforced in six areas for the Orthodox Easter Vigil on Sunday. Between 7pm and 5am local time (6pm to 4am CEST), departure is prohibited in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Kharkiv regions. In other areas, the ban applies from 11pm to 5am local time. Two central services will be televised.