On the morning of Friday March 15, Russia carried out two successive missile strikes on the same location, in Odessa. This tactic, frequently used by the Russian army, first in Syria, then in Ukraine, particularly targets civilian emergency services and serves to terrorize the population.
At least twenty people were killed and seventy-three injured in the deadliest attack since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, against the population of the large port city in southern Ukraine.
A first missile crashed into a residential area at 10:04 a.m. local time, causing a fire. Rescuers and firefighters quickly intervened to put out the fire and search for victims. The second missile struck exactly fifteen minutes later.
Former deputy mayor killed
Photographs taken after the tragedy show lifeless bodies in emergency uniforms. Rescue workers with facial injuries and in a state of shock appear in photos released by Ukrainian emergency services. A fire truck, an ambulance and a police car riddled with shrapnel were also visible.
Former Deputy Mayor of Odessa Serhii Tetyukhin, Deputy Chief of the National Police for the Odessa Region Dmytro Abramenko, as well as former Chief of the Police Patrol, Ex-Chief of the Patrol police officer of the region, Oleksandr Gostishchev, were killed during the attack, report sources within the Odessa town hall. At least five emergency service workers were injured, some of whom are in serious condition, a spokeswoman for the National Emergency Service also said.
The town hall declared a day of mourning on Saturday after this third fatal attack since the beginning of the month in Odessa. On March 3, a Shahed kamikaze drone strike on an apartment building killed twelve people, including five children. On March 6, a Russian missile killed five people near the port, less than a kilometer from the motorcade of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, then visiting the city.
On Friday, in his daily video message, Volodymyr Zelensky denounced an attack “absolutely despicable on the part of these scum: two missiles, and the second at the moment when rescuers and doctors arrived at the site of the attack”.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russian forces fired “Iskander-M ballistic missiles from Crimea” (annexed by Russia in 2014). Weapons known for their great precision and particularly difficult to intercept.
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