A Russian missile that killed five people in the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Wednesday landed only 500 yards from a convoy carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, according to a source.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the strike affected the two leaders’ convoy, resulting in a “mushroom cloud” of smoke.
The strike killed five people and injured several others, according to Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy.
Neither of the two leaders was injured, but Zelensky claimed he was close enough to see and hear the strike.
Zelensky frequently makes high-risk trips to the frontlines
“We saw this strike today. You can see who we are dealing with, they don’t care where they strike. I know that there were victims today, I don’t know all the details yet, but I know that there are dead and wounded,” Zelensky said from Odesa on Wednesday.
“We need to defend ourselves first and foremost. The best way to do that is with an air defense system,” he added.
Mitsotakis claimed Zelensky had given him a tour of the city, which had suffered significant damage from months of Russian strikes, before they heard the air raid sirens.
“Shortly after, as we were getting into our cars, we heard a big explosion,” Mitsotakis told reporters later Wednesday. “I think that for us is the best, most vivid reminder that there is a real war going on here. Every day there is a war, which not only affects the front, the soldiers, it affects our innocent fellow citizens.”
Zelensky frequently makes high-risk trips to the frontlines and has welcomed dozens of world leaders to Ukraine during the country’s more than two-year conflict with Russia, but Wednesday’s attack may be one of the president’s closest calls.
Odesa, located at the mouth of the Danube River, is critical to Ukraine’s grain exports, which Russia has repeatedly attempted to curtail since its invasion.
According to Ukrainian officials, a Russian drone attack on an apartment block in Odesa killed 12 people, five of whom were children.
Zelensky stated that the attack highlighted the need to strengthen the country’s air defenses.
The European Council President, Charles Michel, condemned the strike as “another sign of Russia’s cowardly tactics” that were “below even the Kremlin’s playbook.”
Michel was visiting Odesa in May 2022 when Russia launched ten cruise missiles into the region.