Ukraine’s President Zelensky warns Russia to prepare to bomb port city Odessa

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Sunday that Russian forces were preparing to shell Odessa, a historic port city on the Black Sea coast. “They are preparing to bomb Odessa. Odessa!” he declared in a video address. “The Russians have always come to Odessa. He has always felt only warmth in Odessa. Honesty only. and what more? Bombs against Odessa? Artillery against Odessa? Missiles against Odessa?” he demanded. “It would be a war crime. It would be a historical crime.”

Since the February 24 offensive, Russian forces have made progress in southern Ukraine, capturing the city of Kherson and besieging the port of Mariupol, but Odessa has so far been largely spared. About one million people live in Odessa, a cosmopolitan port on the southern coast of Ukraine with both Ukrainian and Russian speakers, and Bulgarian and Jewish minorities.

The Russian advance from occupied Crimea has turned east to engage with Russian-backed separatists and seize the Azov Sea port of Mariupol. But another part of the force has also moved west towards Kherson on the road towards Odessa. The city is also close to the Moldovan border and the Russian-occupied territory of Transnistria.