66th day of hostilities: Ukraine says Russia destroyed Odessa airstrip
Ukraine’s military said Russian forces fired rockets that destroyed the runway in the southern port city of Odessa and continued shelling Kharkov in the east.
“Today, the enemy attacked with a coastal defense missile Bastion launched from Crimea. The runway of the Odessa airport was destroyed. Thank God there were no victims”, Odessa Governor Maxim Marchenko on April 30. said.
The Ukrainian military later released a statement confirming that the runway was so damaged that it could no longer be used.
Odessa is the city that owns the largest strategic seaport of Ukraine in the Black Sea, with a population of about one million. Odessa was a relatively peaceful place when Russia first launched its military campaign in Ukraine and was a shelter for displaced Ukrainians from other regions. However, the port city has recently been hit by a series of attacks. A week ago, Ukraine said at least eight people were killed in an air strike on the city.
Rescue workers help locals leave a building hit by a missile in Odessa, Ukraine April 24. Image: AFP.
Officials of Kharkov, Ukraine’s second largest city, say they hit a lot of shells Russian forces, although President Zelensky said Ukraine’s military was making “tactical successes” in the region.
Ukraine said on April 30 that 14 of its citizens, including a pregnant soldier, had been released during the war. prisoner exchange latest with Russian forces.
“Today, we conduct a new prisoner exchange. 14 of our people are about to return home, including 7 servicemen and 7 civilians. Among them is a soldier who is five months pregnant,” the deputy prime minister said. Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk writes on Telegram.
Satellite photos taken on April 29 show the roofs of several buildings inside Azovstal steel plant In the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, large holes appeared. Many buildings have completely collapsed and some are just ruins. Several residential and government buildings located to the east of the factory were also completely destroyed.
Sviatoslav Palamar, a commander of the Azov Battalion entrenched at the Azovstal steel plant, said the facility was attacked by artillery, ships and even air strikes.
“There were bunkers and bunkers that we couldn’t access because they were under the rubble,” Palamar said. “We don’t know if the people there are still alive, but there are people stuck in places you can’t get to.”
Russia has not commented on the above information.
Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, viewed from above via satellite image taken on April 29. Image: Maxar Technologies.
During a press conference on April 30, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that since the beginning of the operation, Russian forces have downed more than 140 combat aircraft, 110 helicopters and 650 UAVs of Ukraine. He added that Russia also destroyed 279 surface-to-air missile systems, 2,656 tanks and other armored combat vehicles.
General Konashenkov said that on the night of April 29, Russia’s “air-launched high-precision missiles” hit five Ukrainian military sites, including four ammunition and fuel depots near the settlements Berezovoye, Vozdvizhenka, Pokrovskoye and Barvenkovo together with “an area of concentration of manpower and military equipment of nationalists”.
He added that the Russian warplanes “wiped out nine points of concentration of manpower and military equipment of Ukraine, and eliminated more than 120 nationalists”.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the lifting of sanctions for this country as part of peace negotiations with Ukraine.
“The Russian and Ukrainian delegations are having daily online discussions on the draft agreement,” Lavrov said in comments to the news agency. Xinhua of China, published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry today.
“The agenda of the talks includes issues of denuclearization, recognition of new geopolitical realities, lifting of sanctions and the status of the Russian language in Ukraine,” the Russian foreign minister said. let me know.
However, senior Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak denied the report, saying that Mr. Lavrov had not attended a round of discussions and that Ukraine did not need lessons on “denuclearization” or using the language of the people. attacked his towns and cities.
In a statement quoted by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, he affirmed that “the issue of international sanctions against Russia is not discussed” within the framework of the Russia-Ukraine negotiations.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded more than 5.4 million Ukrainians displaced abroad and more than 7.7 million internally displaced after February 24, when Russia launched a military operation. special aim to “demilitarize and de-fascist Ukraine”.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded 6,134 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 2,899 killed and 3,235 injured. The agency warned the actual number could be much higher.
The direction of Russian penetration in eastern Ukraine. Click on the picture to see details.
Vu Hoang (According to CNN, AFP, Reuters)
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