Strikes hit Odesa during visit of Greek PM as election official killed in Moscow-controlled city
EXPLOSIONS RANG OUT in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa today during a visit to the Black Sea hub by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the pair told reporters.
Greece has heavily criticised Russia’s invasion and has provided humanitarian aid and weapons including infantry fighting vehicles, Kalashnikov assault rifles, launchers and ammunition to Kyiv.
“We heard the sound of sirens and explosions that took place near us. We did not have time to get to a shelter,” Mitsotakis said according to an official Ukrainian translation.
“It is a very intense experience… It’s really different to read about the war in newspapers, and to hear it with your own ears, see it with your own eyes,” he added.
Zelenskyy said the strike had left “dead and wounded”, but he did not have figures.
“You can see who we are facing. They don’t care where they strike,” he said in a joint press conference.
Today in Odesa, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis @kmitsotakis and I paid tribute to those killed on March 2 as a result of the Russian “Shahed” strike on a nine-story residential building.
This attack killed 12 people, including five children. Mark was 3 years old.… pic.twitter.com/3i6eQgZ6Zt
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 6, 2024
Both were visiting the southern port city of Odesa, which has been under renewed fire ever since Russia exited an agreement protecting Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea last summer.
During the trip, Zelenskyy had explained “the importance of the port and what is being done to restore and strengthen the Ukrainian sea route,” Mitsotakis said.
After Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal, Ukraine put in place a protected maritime corridor to continue exports through the Black Sea by hugging the coast line, rather than traversing the open waters.
Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said last week that Ukraine had exported more grain through the ports of Odesa in February than in any month since Russia invaded.
Election official killed
Elsewhere, Moscow said an election official was killed by a car bomb in the Russian-controlled city of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine.
A number of Russian-installed officials have been targeted in apparent assassination attempts since Moscow launched its full-scale military operation in Ukraine two years ago.
Today’s attack, reported by Russia’s Investigative Committee, comes ahead of presidential elections in Russia later this month that will be held in the five Ukrainian regions that the Kremlin claims to have annexed.
“In the morning of 6 March, a homemade explosive device was planted under the vehicle of a member of the precinct election commission,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
“The victim died from her injuries in a medical facility,” the statement added.
The Moscow-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky blamed Ukrainian authorities for the attack and said it was an attempt by Kyiv to “intimidate” residents ahead of the ballot this month.
“They hope to prevent our legitimate expression of will, which is impossible,” he added in a statement on social media.
In 2022, Russia claimed to have annexed the Zaporizhzhia region where the port city of Berdyansk is located along with the Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson territories, despite not having full military control over them.
The vote will also be held in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 after a referendum widely denounced as a sham.
Civilians killed
Moscow installed authorities also reported that seven people were killed in separate incidents in the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk under Russian control.
Five civilians were killed when the bus they were travelling in hit a mine and two more were killed by alleged Ukrainian shelling, authorities said.
“There was a tragedy in the city of Kirovsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic – a bus travelling to a cemetery exploded on a mine,” governor Leonid Pasechnik said.
“Five people were killed,” he added in a comment on social media.
Another official said separately that Ukrainian forces had shelled the town of Kreminna around 70 kilometres further north, killing two civilians.
“Once again Ukrainian units committed a cynical act of aggression by shelling our town,” local official Vyacheslav Tretyakov said on Telegram.
“The enemy struck right in the center of the city where our citizens go shopping, where children walk,” he added.
