Ukraine-Russia war: Death toll in Odesa strike rises to 12, including five children
A Russian strike on the Ukraine port city of Odesa hit an apartment block killing at least a dozen people. Warning: Graphic
A Russian drone strike on the port city of Odesa in Ukraine has killed 12 people, with five of them confirmed to be children.
The drone hit an apartment block early on Saturday morning, partially destroying several floors and leaving more than a dozen people under the rubble.
Search operations were completed by Sunday evening local time, confirming five children among the bodies, with two aged under a year.
Two of the latest bodies found were an eight year-old girl and her older brother.
Odesa region governor Oleg Kiper wrote on Telegram that the deaths caused “unspeakable grief” for all of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the world to help Kyiv defeat “Russian evil” as the death toll continued to rise.
“So far, 10 people have died, including three children: Mark, who was not even three years old, Yelyzaveta, eight months old, and Timofey, four months old. Ukrainian children are Russia’s military targets,” Mr Zelenskyy said on Sunday in a post on Telegram.
Local officials said they expected the toll to rise as there are still people unaccounted for.
Mr Zelenskyy on Saturday had pleaded with Kyiv’s Western allies to supply more air defence systems as Russia continues to pound his country with drones, missiles and artillery fire in the war’s third year.
Ukraine is currently on the back foot with Russia having made recent frontline battlefield gains.
Ukraine’s interior ministry separately reported one death and three people wounded in the southern Kherson region.
Mr Zelenskyy said 215 emergency responders had taken part in an ongoing search and rescue operation in Odesa.
As delays to a crucial $US60-billion aid package from the United States has left Kyiv facing ammunition shortages, Mr Zelenskyy said the attack showed the importance of supporting Ukraine.
“We must win this war,” he said.
“Every Russian loss at the front is our country’s response to Russian terror. The world must respond to every manifestation of Russian evil and repel Russia’s actions.”
Ukraine’s emergency services said they had found the bodies of families huddled together as they sifted through the rubble on Sunday.
“A mother tried to cover her eight-month-old baby with her body. They were found in a tight embrace,” the agency said on Telegram.
There was no comment on the strike in Moscow, which denies targeting civilians despite excessive evidence of Russian strikes on residential areas and the United Nations having verified at least 10,000 civilian deaths since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Russian military bloggers also reported an attempted massive Ukrainian drone attack on the annexed peninsula of Crimea overnight.
Moscow said it shot down 38 Ukrainian drones, while the Rybar Telegram channel, close to Russia’s armed forces, said one hit a pipeline at an oil depot that was the presumed target of the attack.
Kyiv has hit several Russian oil facilities in recent months in what it has called fair retribution for Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.
A senior Ukrainian commander separately accused Russian forces of dropping explosives containing an unspecified chemical substance over the battlefield, and said the situation on the front lines was “complicated, but under control.”
GERMANY ACCUSES RUSSIA OF LEAKED WIRETAP CALL
Germany has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to sow disunity with the wiretap leak of a confidential German army discussion on the Ukraine war, at a time when Berlin is under pressure to supply the Taurus missile to Kyiv.
A 38-minute recording of the talks was posted online late Friday on Russian social media, with the participants discussing the possible use of German-made Taurus missiles and their potential impact.
The discussions also covered the use of long-range missiles provided to Kyiv by France and Britain.
“It is about using this recording to destabilise and unsettle us,” said German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, adding that he “hoped that Putin will not succeed”.
“It is part of an information war that Putin is carrying out,” he added.
Pistorius said he was not aware of any further leaks at the army. He added that he would await the result of a military probe into the case to decide what consequences to draw.
Kyiv has long been clamouring for Germany to provide it with Taurus missiles, which can reach targets up to 500km away.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far refused to send the missiles, fearing that it would lead to an escalation of the conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia.
The acquisition of German Taurus missiles would provide a massive boost for Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to fend off Russia’s invasion.
France and Britain have supplied Kyiv with SCALP or Storm Shadow missiles, both of which have a range of about 250 kilometres.
But Scholz has said that Germany could not justify matching British and French moves in sending long-range missiles to Ukraine and supporting the weapon system’s deployment.
“This is a very long-range weapon, and what the British and French are doing in terms of targeting and supporting targeting cannot be done in Germany,” Scholz said.
Meanwhile, Britain denied that it had any direct involvement in operating the missiles. “Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow and its targeting processes are the business of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said in a statement to AFP.
PUTIN MAKES CHILLING NUCLEAR WARNING
Vladimir Putin has warned the West that Russia has weapons that could strike within their territory and that their threats for conflict created a “real” risk of nuclear war.
The Russian President made the comments in his annual state of nation address in Moscow on Thursday and accused NATO and the US of “preparing to strike”.
“(Western nations) must realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Putin said. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilisation. Don’t they get that?”
“Everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilisation.”
Putin also warned of consequence if international powers were to “strike” his country’s territory.
“We remember the fate of those who try to invade our territory and of course their fate will be much more tragic than anything we could face,” he said.
“Of course all this is very dangerous, because it could actually trigger the use of nuclear weapons.”
Mr Putin, who is all but set to be re-elected to another six-year term during the upcoming March 15-17 presidential election, boasted about Russia’s vast arsenal of modern nuclear weapons, the largest in the world.
The startling warning came after Putin referenced an idea floated by French President Emmanuel Macron of European NATO members sending ground troops to Ukraine, which was rejected by the US, Britain and Germany, among others.
“Strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness,” Putin said, noting that new-generation hypersonic nuclear weapons he first spoke about in 2018 had either been deployed or were at a stage where development and testing were being completed.
The Russian leader’s address came a day after the president of the European Commission suggested Russian assets be frozen to help fund Ukraine.
Visibly angry, Mr Putin suggested Western politicians recall the fate of those like Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and France’s Napoleon Bonaparte who had invaded Russia in the past.
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” Mr Putin said.
“They think it (war) is a cartoon.”
UFO SPOTTED IN UKRAINE WARZONE
Ukrainian soldiers believe they have spotted a disk-shaped UFO floating over the war zone.
The eerie footage circulating on social media shows the mystery object hovering in the sky as puzzled troops use special heat detecting drones to investigate it.
The men in the video are part of Ukraine’s fierce 406th Battalion and can be seen using the drone’s control screen to observe the unidentified disc.
At first, the soldiers fly their drone cautiously closely to the object before zooming in to examine it further.
Ukrainian defenders filmed an unidentified disc-shaped object in the combat zone. pic.twitter.com/Ak8wKUbAPm
— ✙ Albina Fella ✙ 🇺🇦🇬🇧🇫🇷🇩🇪🇵🇱🇺🇸🇨🇦🇦🇺 (@albafella1) February 28, 2024
The drone’s altitude radar manages to show the object was more than 48km away, however, it still appeared massive on the screen.
The object hovers, seemingly completely still, even as the drone approaches.
A bewildered soldier in the clip can be heard saying: “What the f*** is this? Why isn’t it moving?”
Another says the flying disc is “a UFO, for sure. It is staying in place, on the screen. Zoom in more.
“It’s standing still, do you see?”
UKRAINE RALLIES ALLIES FOR SUPPORT, WEAPONS
Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with Balkan leaders for greater backing to help fend off Russian forces, emphasising how ammo shortages were impacting frontline troops.
The Ukrainian President has been crisscrossing the globe in recent weeks to rally support for his embattled country, as fresh US support is tangled in domestic politics and Russia has made battlefield advances.
During opening remarks at the meeting in Albania, Mr Zelenskyy thanked Balkan leaders for their military and humanitarian support over the past two years of war, but emphasised that supplies were still running low at the frontline.
“We see the problems with the supply of ammunition which are affecting the situation on the battlefield,” Mr Zelenskyy said, adding that his administration was interested in hosting a future “Ukrainian-Balkans defence industry forum”.
Mr Zelenskyy went on to stress that efforts to supply Ukraine must be streamlined immediately, warning against further delays that provided Russia with an advantage in the war.
“Every pause in supply, every doubt that the world is ready to defend itself, all this inspires one person. All this inspires Putin,” he told reporters, referring to the Russian president.
“We don’t have time and we don’t have alternatives,” he added.
The comments came hours after arriving in Albania late Tuesday for the “Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit” — his first visit to the Balkan nation since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Following a sit-down with Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president said the two sides were exploring further defence co-operation.
“Since the first days of the full-scale invasion, Albania has supported Ukraine in our struggle for freedom and territorial integrity,” Mr Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“Today we also discussed Ukraine’s defence needs and potential joint arms production,” he added.
US CALLS ON G7 TO SEIZE RUSSIAN PROFITS
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it was urgent for G7 countries to jointly seize profits from frozen Russian assets and redirect them to Ukraine, as the group prepared to meet on the issue.
Calls have been mounting in the United States and Europe to set up a fund for Ukraine using billions of dollars in bank accounts, investments and other assets frozen by the West over Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“It is necessary and urgent for our coalition to find a way to unlock the value of these immobilised assets to support Ukraine’s continued resistance and long-term reconstruction,” Yellen told journalists in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she will attend a meeting of G20 finance ministers Wednesday and Thursday.
“There is a strong international law, economic, and moral case for moving forward. This would be a decisive response to Russia’s unprecedented threat to global stability. It would make clear that Russia cannot win by prolonging the war and would incentivise it to come to the table to negotiate a just peace with Ukraine.” Yellen urged joint action by the Group of Seven – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States, plus the European Union – after evaluating the risks, which include triggering financial instability.
“The G7 should work together to explore a number of approaches: seizing the assets themselves, using them as collateral to borrow from global markets,” she said.
G7 officials say the group is due to meet on the sidelines of the Sao Paulo gathering to discuss supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The estimated US$397 billion in Russian assets frozen by the West Range from central bank assets to yachts, real estate and other property from oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin.
It comes as US president Joe Biden will host urgent talks with top US Congress leaders at the White House in a bid to unlock billions of dollars in stalled emergency aid to war-torn Ukraine and avert a looming government shutdown at home.
The high-stakes showdown comes after Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that his country desperately needs continued support from the West to defeat Russia and voiced hope the United States would approve the US$60 billion package.
The White House said Biden will meet Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Democratic counterpart Hakeem Jeffries, as well as the Senate’s Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and opposition chief Mitch McConnell.
EU LEADERS WON’T SEND TROOPS AS KREMLIN WARNS OF WIDER WAR
French President Emmanuel Macron faced uneasy reactions from European allies and a warning from the Kremlin on Tuesday after he refused to rule out the dispatch of Western ground troops to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion.
Macron said after a conference of European leaders on Monday that “everything that is necessary” must be done to ensure the defeat of Russia, including deploying troops.
The Kremlin warned of the “inevitability” of confrontation between NATO and Russia if troops from the alliance were deployed in the conflict, which would break a major taboo the West has so far been reluctant to challenge.
Macron hosted the conference just over two years to the day after Russia invaded Ukraine — seeking to rally greater support for Kyiv, which faces increasing battlefield challenges and dwindling munition stocks.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, accused by critics of being too cosy with Moscow, said his country will “never” send troops to Ukraine.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden said “it’s not on the cards at all for the moment”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X: “It is clear: there will be no ground troops from European countries or NATO.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that, if NATO troops appeared in Ukraine, “we (would) need to speak not about a possibility but of the inevitability” of confrontation.
“This is absolutely not in the interests of these countries, they should be aware of this,” he added.
A NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasised “there are no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine” despite the “unprecedented military support” from the alliance.
The Italian government said support for Ukraine did not include sending troops. “When we talk about sending troops, we must be very cautious because we must not make people think we are at war with Russia,” said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
“We are not at war with Russia,” he said.
The United Kingdom said there were no plans for a “large-scale” troop deployment to Ukraine.
EU MOVE SET TO INFURIATE RUSSIA
The European Union is expected to move toward seizing Russian profits generated in the bloc, a key step to backing Ukraine that stops short of calls to confiscate assets outright.
Britain and the United States have led calls for the takeover of billions of dollars in frozen Russian banking and other assets, meeting reluctance from European partners who fear that such a step will send other countries racing to pull money out of the West.
Greece’s special national envoy for Ukraine Spiros Lampridis said the Europeans were coming to consensus on a more “subtle” approach of seizing profits from Russian investments and assets, either public or private, to set up a fund for Ukraine.
The Europeans will tell Russia “I’m not going to allow you to make profits on the capital you have accumulated on my soil, so the profits of that can be confiscated,” Mr Lampridis told AFP on a visit to Washington.
“We’re about to do it. I think it’s a question of months,” he said, adding that the European Commission was working out legal and practical implementation.
Compared with an estimated 500 billion euros ($A829 billion) – or likely much more – needed for Ukraine’s reconstruction, he estimated that the move would generate 50 to 60 billion euros ($A82-$A99 billion).
“It’s a trifle, but still, really, it’s at least a move to show them – look what you've done,” he said of Russia.
“You cannot replace the lives that you have destroyed, but at least you can contribute in rebuilding what you destroyed.”
Mr Lampridis said that the more “brutal” approach of seizing Russian assets was “totally illegal” under international law.
“Practically, well, there are lots of assets of Western companies or countries in Russia itself, so you can imagine what the next step will be,” he said.
On seizing profits, “of course, the Russians will react to that as well,” he said.
“But even if they take us to the international courts, I think we’re going to win.”
WESTERN GROUND TROOPS NOT RULED OUT: MACRON
French President Emmanuel Macron announced new steps to boost Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, saying not even the sending of Western ground troops was ruled out to achieve Europe’s goal of defeating Moscow.
Speaking after hosting a meeting of two dozen European leaders to discuss Ukraine, Macron painted a grim picture of a Russia whose positions he said were “hardening” both at home and on the battlefield.
“We are convinced that the defeat of Russia is indispensable to security and stability in Europe,” he said.
Russia, he said, was showing a “more aggressive attitude not just in Ukraine but in general”. While there was “no consensus” on the sending of Western ground troops to Ukraine, “nothing should be excluded. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war,” he said. Macron said the new coalition would be set up to supply Ukraine with “missiles and bombs of medium and long range to carry out deep strikes”. There was a “broad consensus to do more and quicker”, he added. “Nothing can be excluded to achieve our objective. Russia cannot win that war.”
SWEDEN SET TO JOIN NATO AFTER HUNGARY APPROVES BID
Sweden has cleared its final obstacle to joining NATO after Hungary’s parliament ratified the bid in what Sweden’s prime minister called a “historic day”, while other alliance members expressed relief at the move spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden would make the alliance “stronger and safer” while the United States, the main alliance power, as well as Britain and Germany welcomed Sweden’s now imminent accession.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that having Sweden in NATO “strengthens our defence alliance and with it the security of Europe and the world”.
Russia’s invasion two years ago prompted Sweden and neighbouring Finland to apply to join the trans-Atlantic bloc, ending their longstanding stance of non-alignment.
Every NATO member has to approve a new country however, and Hungary’s vote ended more than a year of delays that frustrated the other 31 nations as Ukraine battled Russian troops.
Today is a historic day. The parliaments of all NATO member states have now voted in favour of Swedish accession to NATO. Sweden stands ready to shoulder its responsibility for Euro-Atlantic security.
— SwedishPM (@SwedishPM) February 26, 2024
Finland joined in April last year, but Sweden’s bid was stalled by both Hungary and Turkey, with Ankara approving Stockholm’s candidacy only last month.
Hungary then followed, with 188 parliament members voting in favour and six far-right deputies against.
“Today is a historic day … Sweden stands ready to shoulder its responsibility for Euro-Atlantic security,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on X.
Speaking about Russia’s potential reaction, Kristersson told a press conference: “The only thing we can expect with any certainty is that they don’t like Sweden becoming a member of NATO, nor Finland”.
“(Going forward) Nordic countries will have a common defence for the first time in 500 years … we remain friends, and we become allies.”
UKRAINE DRONE KILLS 3 IN RUSSIAN BORDER VILLAGE
A Ukrainian drone struck a car in the Russian border village of Pochaevo, killing three people and wounding three others, the region’s governor said.
Pochaevo is less than five kilometres from the Ukrainian border in Russia’s Belgorod region, which Moscow says has been repeatedly targeted by Kyiv’s forces.
“The Ukrainian army attacked a car with a kamikaze drone on the outskirts of the village of Pochaevo in Grayvoron district,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
“There were construction workers in the car. To my great grief, the three civilians died from their wounds as a result of the explosion.”
Russia’s Belgorod and other border regions have sustained repeated shelling and drone attacks since Moscow launched its assault on Ukraine two years ago.
Belgorod, the capital of the region, began evacuating hundreds of residents last month after officials said a Ukrainian attack in late December killed 25 people.
UKRAINE FRUSTRATION MOUNTS AS US STALLS ON AID
The subject of US aid to Ukraine will take centre stage this week as US President Joe Biden prepares to meet on Tuesday local time with top congressional leaders to discuss passing additional funding for Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
Mr Biden has argued for the need to support the country against Russia as a matter of national security abroad and in the US.
But a foreign aid bill that includes $US60 billion earmarked for Ukraine is stuck in Congressional squabbling, even though the president has directed his administration to make the consequences of not passing the bill “abundantly clear,” a US official told CNN.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN on Sunday that “millions” could die if US legislators deny or delay the aid, and that Donald Trump is siding with Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zelenskyy said he “can’t understand how Donald Trump can be on the side of Putin,” adding, calling it “unbelievable.”
While noting that Trump, the Republican frontrunner to challenge Biden in November’s election, met the Russian president during his term in office, Mr Zelenskyy said, “I think Donald Trump doesn’t know Putin. I don’t think he understands that Putin will never stop.”
Mr Zelenskyy on Monday said the EU has supplied only 30 per cent of the million shells it promised.
“Out of the million shells that the European Union promised us, not 50 per cent came, but 30 per cent, unfortunately,” Mr Zelenskyy said at a press conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in Kyiv.
It comes as Ukraine confirmed on Monday that it had withdrawn from the settlement of Lastochkyne in eastern Ukraine, which Russia said it had captured, the latest in a string of Russian advances after the fall of Avdiivka.
As the war enters its third year, Moscow’s troops have mounted heavy attacks and taken Avdiivka – a key eastern town – while Ukrainian troops are struggling with a lack of ammunition.
31,000 UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS KILLED SINCE RUSSIAN INVASION
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the war with Russia, in a rare official statement on military losses sustained during the two-year war.
At a press conference in Kyiv, Mr Zelenskyy said: “31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in this war. Not 300,000 or 150,000, or whatever (Vladimir) Putin and his lying circle are saying. But each of these losses is a great loss for us.”
Mr Zelenskyy said his country’s victory “depends” on support from the Western world and he was “sure” the United States would approve a critical package of military aid.
“Whether Ukraine will lose, whether it will be very difficult for us and whether there will be a large number of casualties depends on you, on our partners, on the Western world.”
He added that “there is hope for Congress, and I am sure that it is going to be positive.”
But half of Western military aid to Kyiv is delivered later than promised, delays that hobble Kyiv’s ability to defend itself against Russian attacks and cost Ukrainian lives, the country’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said.
Ukraine, which is struggling with an ammunition shortage, has for months said that Western aid is too slow to reach it and that the hold-ups have real consequences as the war against Russia enters its third year.
“At the moment, commitment does not constitute delivery,” Mr Umerov said during a forum dedicated to the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
“Fifty per cent of commitments are not delivered on time,” he added.
Europe has admitted it will fall far short of a plan to deliver more than one million artillery shells to the country by March, instead hoping to complete the shipments by the end of the year.
Mr Umerov said such delays put Ukraine at a further disadvantage “in the mathematics of war” against Russia, which the West has said is increasingly building a war economy.
Mr Umerov said that delayed aid will mean Kyiv will “lose people, lose territories”, especially given Russia’s “air superiority”.
“We do everything possible and impossible but without timely supply it harms us,” he said.
Kyiv has in recent weeks been weakened by an ammunition shortage, with a vital $US60bn ($A92bn) US aid package blocked by political wrangling in the US Congress.
US President Joe Biden said the hold-ups directly contributed to Ukraine being forced to withdraw from the frontline town of Avdiivka earlier in February – handing Russia its first territorial gain in almost a year.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said he was “deeply convinced that the US will not abandon Ukraine in terms of financial, military and armed support.”
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Originally published as Ukraine-Russia war: Death toll in Odesa strike rises to 12, including five children
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