Russia destroys US and EU arsenals supplied to Ukraine

Russian forces destroyed a logistics depot in the city of Odessa, which contained a large batch US and European weapons supplied to Ukraine– Moscow said on April 23.

According to RT, the Odessa city government stated that the Ukrainian air defenses intercepted two missiles, but four other missiles hit military targets and residential buildings, causing casualties. It remains unclear whether civilian buildings were attacked as a result of Ukrainian forces attempting to shoot down missiles aimed at military targets.

According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov, on the afternoon of April 23, “a long-range precision missile launched from the air” hit a logistics depot located at the military airport near Odessa, where “a large batch of foreign weapons received from the US and European countries are stored”.

Russia has repeatedly warned NATO against sending weapons to Ukraine and has vowed to treat arms convoys as legitimate military targets.

Odessa regional emergency services earlier said that “as a result of an enemy shelling” a 16-story residential building caught fire and was extinguished for about two and a half hours.

“Up to this point, it is known that 6 people have died, including a child, 18 people have been injured. Two people have been rescued from the rubble, 86 people have been evacuated,” authorities said in a statement.

Speaking later during a press conference in Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky explained these claims in detail.

“At this point, eight people are dead, 18 or 20 people are injured. A three-month-old baby died. When the war started, this child was only a month old,” Zelensky said.

According to the press office of the Southern Air Command of Ukraine, on April 23, the air defense forces destroyed two rocketwhich is believed to have been launched by Russia’s TU-95 strategic aircraft from the Caspian Sea and two tactical-grade UAVs”.

Since Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine, Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of targeting civilians, obstructing evacuations and violating international law. Several rounds of peace negotiations have yielded no significant results.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine at the end of February, after accusing Kiev of failing to fulfill the terms of the Minsk agreement, first signed in 2014 and eventually Moscow’s recognition of the the self-proclaimed Donbass republics Donetsk and Lugansk. The Minsk agreement brokered by Germany and France was designed to give the breakaway regions special status in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country and will never join the military bloc. NATO led by the US. Kiev insists the Russian attack is completely unprovoked and rejects claims it is planning to retake the two republics in the Donbass by force.