Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, March 3, urged the West to help Kiev defeat the “Russian evil,” following the Russian attack in Odessa that left at least 12 civilians dead, including five children.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, March 3, that political will is needed to ensure that Ukraine gets the military supplies it needs or the world will face “one of the most shameful pages in history.”
“The main thing is the political will to achieve this, to ensure the level of supplies that helps,” Zelensky said in his late-night video address.
“If this is not the case, it will become one of the most shameful pages in history, if the United States or Europe lose to the Iranian 'Shaheds' (drones) or the Russian fighter jets,” he said.
Ukraine is trying to stop Russian advances, optimizing the resources at its disposal and with personnel changes, given the shortage of ammunition and infantry and the stagnation of international aid, in the midst of new attacks, the most recent in Odessa, in the South.
In that attack, the number of civilians killed amounts to at least 12, including two babies under one year old, according to the region's governor, Oleg Kiper.
“The mother tried to cover the eight-month-old baby with her body. They were found hugging,” stated the State Emergency Services (DSNS), which published a pixelated photo of the rescue of the mortal remains from the rubble.
These deaths occurred when a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the port city of Odessa on Saturday, partially destroying several floors and leaving more than a dozen people under the rubble.
The attack killed at least five children, including two babies under one year old, according to statements by President Volodymyr Zelensky and the regional government.
“Mark, who was not even three years old, Yelyzaveta, eight months old, and Timofey, four months old,” Zelensky said, naming the youngest victims of the attack.
“Ukrainian children are military targets of Russia,” he said.
Rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Sunday afternoon, more than 36 hours after the attack.
Zelensky had pleaded with kyiv's Western allies on Saturday to supply more air defense systems, as Russia continues to attack Ukraine with drones, missiles and artillery fire in the third year of the war.
kyiv is currently on the defensive, as Russia has made recent advances on the frontline battlefield.
Odessa. The rescue operation at the site of the Russian “Shahed” strike is ongoing. A total of 215 people are on the scene, including rescuers, police, and utility workers. I am grateful to every volunteer who helps.
So far, ten people have been reported killed, including three… pic.twitter.com/FU3Qtv28Tt
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 3, 2024
Zelensky said that 215 rescuers had participated in an ongoing search and rescue operation in Odessa.
While delays to a crucial $60 billion US aid package have left Kiev facing ammunition shortages, Zelensky said the attack showed the importance of supporting Ukraine.
“We must win this war,” he said Sunday.
“Every Russian loss on the front is our country's response to Russian terrorism. The world must respond to every manifestation of Russian evil and repel Russia's actions.”
Crowded bodies
There was no comment on the attack from Russia, which denies targeting civilians, despite excessive evidence of Russian attacks on residential areas and the fact that the UN has verified at least 10,000 civilian deaths since Russia invaded in February. 2022.
Ukrainian emergency services said they had found the bodies of huddled families while searching through the rubble on Sunday.
Odessa Governor Oleg Kiper reported that the bodies of a brother and sister, aged 10 and eight, were also found together in the rubble on Sunday afternoon.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry separately reported one death and three people injured in the southern Kherson region, while police reported that an airstrike on a residential neighborhood of Kurakhove, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, left 16 dead. wounded.
Russian military bloggers, for their part, reported a massive attempted Ukrainian drone attack on the annexed Crimean peninsula overnight.
Moscow said it shot down 38 Ukrainian drones, while the Rybar Telegram channel, close to the Russian military, said one hit an oil pipeline at an oil depot that was the suspected target of the attack.
kyiv has attacked several Russian oil facilities in recent months in what it has called righteous retaliation for Moscow's attacks on Ukraine's power grid.
'Information war'
A Ukrainian commander also accused Russian forces of dropping explosives containing an unspecified chemical substance on the battlefield and said the situation on the front was “complicated, but under control.”
Meanwhile, the fallout from a leaked audio recording of German military officers looked set to further sink relations between Moscow and Berlin on Sunday.
A 38-minute recording of German officers discussing Ukraine's possible use of German-made Taurus missiles and their potential impact was posted on Russian social media on Friday night.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that Moscow was “using this recording to destabilize and disrupt,” adding that he “hoped Putin would not succeed.”
“It is part of an information war that Putin is carrying out,” he said.
Read alsoBerlin accuses Putin of wanting to “destabilize” Germany with illegal wiretapping leak
With AFP
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