Russian missiles strike near Zelenskyy and visiting Greek prime minister

A deadly Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa appeared to land near President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and visiting Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Guardian reports.

After the attack, the minister described the moment of the bombardment as “intense”.

The attack on port infrastructure on March 6 killed five people and left an unspecified number of wounded, according to Ukraine’s navy.

“We heard the sound of sirens and explosions that took place near us,” said Mitsotakis, who was holding talks with Zelenskyy. “We did not have time to get to a shelter. It is a very intense experience,” Mitsotakis added, through an interpreter in Odesa.

Ukraine stepped up its own attacks behind Russian lines with the apparent killing of a Russian election official on Wednesday with a car bomb and a drone assault on a metal plant.

Russia and Ukraine have increased aerial attacks as Moscow’s troops advance on the frontlines and Kyiv faces a shortage of manpower and weapons.

Spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk confirmed that the Odesa strike came as the Greek delegation was visiting the port with Zelenskyy.

Russian forces “don’t care whether [targets] are military or civilians; whoever they are, whether they are international guests, these people don’t care,” Zelenskyy said.

According to the White House spokesperson in Washington, “It appears that [the rocket] landed near the convoy.”

But the Russian defence ministry claimed that the strike was on a “hangar in a commercial port area of Odesa in which crewless cutters were being prepared for combat use by the Ukrainian armed forces”.

The attack came just days after 12 people, including five children, were killed when a Russian drone hit a residential block in the same Black Sea city, one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in weeks.