Two people were killed and 15 others injured in a ‘major Russian attack’ on Odessa, southern Ukraine, the authorities announced on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky. The latter asked for the West to strengthen ‘pressure’ on Moscow.
‘For more than 50 days, Russia ignores the American proposal for a complete and unconditional ceasefire on Ukraine’ and only responds with ‘again bombardments and assaults’ against Ukraine, denounced Mr. Zelensky on social networks.
‘An additional pressure on Russia is essential to force it (…) to negotiate’, he added. ‘The more effective the sanctions, the more Russia will have reason to end the war’ against Ukraine launched three years ago, said the Head of State, also calling to strengthen the air defense of his country against Moscow attacks.
new Russian attacks
During the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the Russian army launched on Ukraine 170 drones including 21 on Odessa, a large port city on the Black Sea, said Zelensky.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia has also shot five ballistic missiles from Crimea, annexed Ukrainian peninsula.
In total, 74 combat drones could be killed and 68 lure drones disappeared without doing damage, added the air force. The regions of Odessa, Kharkiv, Soumy (northeast), Donetsk (East) and kyiv (Center-Nord) were affected, according to the same source.
In Odessa, the attack affected a residential area, a school and a supermarket killing two people and injured 15 others, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
Agreement on minerals
These new Moscow strikes occur at a time when the United States and Ukraine have just signed a large economic agreement in Washington on Wednesday an investment fund in the reconstruction of this country ravaged by the war and giving the Donald Trump administration access to Ukrainian natural resources.
There are in parallel multiple international diplomatic negotiations to find an outcome to the conflict, more than three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, punctuated by almost daily bombing on civil structures.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermark, again asked for his Telegram account that ‘we, with the United States, Pusions for a full cease-fire’.
President ‘Putin will constantly have the desire to kill, until the end of his days, but diplomacy coupled with energetic economic means of influence will contrast Russia to arrest war, “wrote Mr. Iermark.
/ATS
Related news :