04 March 2024 , 13:31
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Ukraine's leader has accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of making Ukrainian children “military targets” after an horrific kamikaze drone attack on a nine-storey apartment block saw five youngsters killed.
Dozens were confirmed dead in the strike by a Iranian-made Shahed drone in the Ukrainian city of Odesa. Grieving Ukrainians have been seen placing hundreds of children’s toys on a shrine to the dead children in one of the most heartbreaking attacks of the two-year-old war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky accused his Russian counterpart of deliberately attacking children, and pleaded with the West for new supplies of air defences to protect his people. He said: “Mark, who was not even three years old, Yelyzaveta, eight months old, and Timofey, four months old. Ukrainian children are Russia's military targets.”
Later, in his evening address, Zelensky added: "We are waiting for supplies that are vitally necessary, we are waiting, in particular, for an American solution.”
Rescuers are working in Odesa (DSNS/east2west news)Brother and sister Serhii, nine, daughter Zlata, eight, were pulled from the rubble of their apartment block following the Russian attack. Earlier their mother Tetyana Kravets and their stepfather, Ukrainian army Lt-Col Oleg Kravets, had been found dead.
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Teyyana was clutching her youngest child, eight month old Yelyzaveta. Her eldest child - a boy, who was staying with his grandmother when the bomb struck - is the sole survivor of the family of six. The couple had met in the army before she took maternity leave to care for her youngest child.
Mother Anastasia Martyniuk is fighting for her life in hospital. Her son Mark was due to be three on Sunday - but did not live to his birthday. He died with his father Vitaliy in the carnage.
Anna Gaidardzhy, 31, with her husband Sergey (social media; e2w news)Rescuer Ilya Kovalsky, of the Diamond special unit, said: "We lifted several cement blocks and saw a small leg. We dug out the baby already dead. His injuries were incompatible with life.”
Tymofiy - four months old - died alongside his mother Anna Gaidardzhy, 31, the wife of a local baptist pastor, Sergey. He stood shellshocked at the site of the bombed out residential building as rescuers worked. Anna’s sister Sofia Sidak said: “She pressed him to her chest.”
The bodies and faces of the mother and son were “mutilated” in the carnage, she said. Her daughter Lisa, two, survived the hellish attack.
Russia had targeted a nine-storey residential building, Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Andrei Kostin, claimed. He said: “This is not just shelling, this is a policy aimed at terror and destruction of Ukrainians. This is an attack on a residential building. This house is not located next to any military or dual-use facility. This house is located in a densely built area.”
Oleg and Tetyana Kravets both died (social media; e2w news)Ukrainian Telegram channel Pravda Gerashchenko said: "Russia deliberately attacked a residential building in Odesa, children were among the dead.”
Among the dead were a woman aged 72 and a man, 36. One staircase and 18 apartments were destroyed. Video and pictures show the carnage in Odesa after an explosion as a drone hit an apartment building as residents slept at 1am. In the wake of the strike, Zelensky said: “We need more air defence from partners. It is necessary to strengthen the Ukrainian air shield to add protection to our people from Russian terror.
“More air defence systems, more missiles for air defence - this is what saves lives.”