Several people have been killed in a Russian strike on Ukraine’s port city of Odesa, according to a spokesperson for Ukraine’s navy.
The attack came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was giving a tour of the war-ravaged city to Greece’s prime minister on Wednesday.
Russia said it successfully attacked a hangar housing Ukrainian naval drones in a strike on the port.
“The goal has been achieved. The target has been hit,” the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Zelenskyy was showing Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis around the destruction in the city where 12 people – including five children – were killed in a drone attack on March 2 at the time of the Russian strike.
“You see who we’re dealing with, they don’t care where to hit,” Zelenskyy told reporters following the attack on Wednesday.
Mitsotakis said the delegations were getting into their cars when they heard the blast, which he said is a “vivid reminder” that the city is embroiled in war with Russia.
It is one thing to hear about the war and “quite another to experience war firsthand”, Mitsotakis said.
At least five people were killed in the attack, a navy spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned the “vile attack”, which she described in a post on X as a “new attempt at terror” by Russia.
Over the course of the conflict, foreign leaders have made numerous trips to Ukraine, occasionally having to take refuge in shelters when air raid sirens sound.
Russia has ramped up its attacks on port infrastructure since mid-July, when it quit a United Nations-brokered deal that allowed the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea.
