Can’t rule out Russians targeting Zelenskyy or the Greek PM, Ukrainians say
It could not be ruled out that a Russian missile strike on Odesa port on Wednesday had targeted the delegations of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy or Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a top Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Thursday.
“It really was less than 500 meters from us. What was that? … You cannot exclude it was directed at the delegation of my president or the delegation of foreign guest,” Ihor Zhovkva, a top diplomatic adviser, told CNN Live in an interview.
The two leaders were inspecting the Ukrainian grain export corridor in the Black Sea port when the missile hit port infrastructure.
Zhovkva said the missile was launched from Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Five people were killed in the attack, the Ukrainian military said.
“It took the missile less than three minutes to reach the target, the site of the port of Odesa,” he said said. “Have we had enough air defence, this ballistic missile could have been intercepted.”
Hours after the attack, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that it had successfully hit a Ukrainian warehouse which contained unmanned marine drones.
Dmitry Medvedev, former president and current deputy chairman of the security council of the Russian Federation, denied the allegation that the strike was intended for Zelenskyy.
“Everything here is obvious to everyone. Both that there was no attack on the motorcade in Odessa, and [moreover] that if a target had been set, they (Russian forces) would have hit it,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel.
Medvedev said the strike hit exactly what it was targeting – a naval drones warehouse – near the port.
Speaking during a conference of the European People’s Party in Bucharest, Mitsotakis sent a message of unilateral support to Ukraine, saying “none of us will be intimidated.”
“I think we all have one message for the Kremlin: we will not get scared, we will continue to support Ukraine and its brave citizens for as long as it takes, and we remain united on this issue,” Mitsotakis said.
“We showed our support for Ukraine in a manner which was unexpected by certain enemies,” he said, adding that no violations of international law or attempts to alter borders via force would be accepted by the European “political family.”
[Reuters, Kathimerini]
