More than twenty-four hours have passed since Dacha-Kovalevsky Street was struck. A memorial of bouquets of flowers for the twenty-one dead covers a bus stop bench. The words “eternal memory” were placed on stone blocks next to the date Friday March 15. Passers-by parade along the wooded alley crossing the normally peaceful residential area, stopping in front of the remains of several gutted houses, prohibited from entering by the police.
Denys was a few blocks away when the first missile fired from occupied Crimea hit. This Saturday, March 16, the day after the deadliest strike on Odessa since the start of the invasion, the 20-year-old electrician is struggling to hide his fatigue.
The young man gestures awkwardly to the space where killed and injured rescuers were lying. The latter were mowed down by a second missile while trying to rescue the victims of the first strike. This tactic, which targets emergency services, has been frequently used by Russia, first in Syria and then in Ukraine. ” I’m not scared anymore, says Dionysius, speaking of the regular attacks on the port city. But when we got here, it was very hard.”
“The Russians are ready to do anything to occupy Odessa”, breathes Artur, 42, looking into the distance before pointing to the impacts of shards projected by the explosions on the walls of the area. He scrolls through the photos on his phone: a body in a white bag, streaks of blood on the ground… The man with three days’ beard explains that he is part of these networks of civilian volunteers who systematically intervene around areas that have been bombed in order to offer help. “Everyone knows it wasn’t just a random target,” he explains, returning to the attack the day before, assuring that it targeted a military base set up in the neighborhood.
A wave of kamikaze drones
In addition to the dozens of injured and civilian victims killed, the Ukrainian authorities announced the death of two former senior officials of the Odessa police serving in an assault brigade made up of police officers, “Lyut”. One of them was the commander of a battalion. A former first deputy mayor of the city, engaged in the army, was also killed. “They were just coming back from the front line,” laments Veronika Etnarovych, advisor to the councilor, who came to visit the scene of the tragedy. Rumors about the arrest of a Ukrainian informant who allegedly indicated the presence of these soldiers to the Russian armed forces have not been confirmed.
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