Russia Strikes Shopping Mall, Warehouse in Odessa After Victory Day Celebrations
Ukrainian economy is expected to contract 30% this year, development bank says
Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian port city of Odessa overnight, local authorities said, killing one person and wounding others, and confirming expectations that Russia would intensify its offensive in Ukraine as it celebrates victory in World War II.
The strikes began after Russia paraded military hardware through Red Square on Monday and as fireworks lit up the sky over Moscow during celebrations to mark Victory Day, an annual holiday marking the defeat of the Nazis that President Vladimir Putin has seized on to promote the aims of his war in Ukraine.
United Nations monitors said Tuesday they had corroborated 7,061 civilian casualties across Ukraine since Russia invaded it on Feb. 24, with 3,381 people killed and 3,680 injured. The death and injury toll is certainly greater, according to officials with the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which said it has also received reports of unlawful killings and other abuses.
“Many of these allegations concern violations that may amount to war crimes,” mission head Matilda Bogner told reporters in Geneva.
Mr. Putin’s Victory Day speech on Monday included no major political announcement after widespread speculation he could declare war on Ukraine or mobilize Russia’s male population for a campaign that continues to stall despite having largely been narrowed to Ukraine’s east.
Russia’s forces instead appeared to step up their bombardment of cities including Odessa and continued their advance on Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, the final holdout of Ukrainian fighters defending a city now almost completely under Russian control.
“Shelling, air [strikes], all night,” Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov battalion defending the plant, told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. “We have lots of wounded, and they need evacuating.”
The governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said more than 100 civilians remained in the plant. Most of the others have been evacuated under a U.N.-brokered deal in recent days.
The main ground offensive continued in Ukraine’s east, where government forces have been staging counteroffensives near Kharkiv. Russian troops said they had solidified control around Popasna, a town they captured this week.
Russia has billed its war in Ukraine in large part as a campaign to demilitarize the country, justifying long-range strikes against military infrastructure as a way of destroying weapons stockpiles and supplies provided by Western allies. Ukraine has provided ample evidence that many of the objects hit have been civilian buildings not connected with efforts to shore up its defenses.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.
Among the objects struck in Odessa overnight was a shopping mall and a consumer-goods warehouse, according to Ukraine’s southern military command.
“The enemy continues its psychological pressure and such hysterical attacks on civilian residents and civilian infrastructure,” the Ukraine command said in a statement.
A video posted online by Ukrainian forces showed the warehouse burning and teams of firefighters working to extinguish the flames and clean up the area.
Gennady Trukhanov, the mayor of Odessa, toured the ruins of the warehouse that was struck by Russian forces. Because of a curfew in place to discourage people from leaving their homes ahead of an expected escalation in fighting around May 9, there were few people in the area, authorities said.
“This enterprise had nothing to do with military infrastructure,” Mr. Trukhanov said in a video posted to his Facebook page, as workers cleaned up the debris behind him. “This is how the Russian world congratulated hero city Odessa on May 9.”
Also Tuesday, Europe’s leading development bank projected the Ukrainian economy to contract 30% this year, much more sharply than previously forecast, because of continuing damage from the Russian invasion.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in late March had predicted a 20% contraction in the war-torn nation.
Ukraine’s economy had been growing at 3.4% in 2021 before Russia invaded, the bank said in its report.
The economic disruption is extending to Ukraine’s energy sector. The country has nearly exhausted its gasoline supplies for civilian use following attacks by Russian forces on its energy infrastructure, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
Most gas stations are limiting motorists to 10 liters of fuel at a time, or just over 2.6 gallons. Some have lines stretching a quarter-mile long.
Ukraine has roughly 20 days of gasoline supplies and five to six days of diesel supplies available for the general public, said Ms. Svyrydenko, who is also the country’s deputy prime minister.
In Washington, the House of Representatives was expected this week to take up a nearly $40 billion U.S. aid package for Ukraine to help the beleaguered nation fight against the Russian invasion and sustain its economy, according to Democratic aides.
“I call on Congress to pass the Ukrainian Supplemental funding bill immediately, and get it to my desk in the next few days,” President Biden said Monday.
Much of the money would go to providing additional military supplies to Ukraine, as well as to neighboring countries as part of broader North Atlantic Treaty Organization efforts, according to the original White House request.
The White House is also asking for $1.2 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to aid Ukrainians entering the U.S., including for English language education, job training and mental-health services.
The package can pass the House with a simple majority, but in the Senate it needs Republican support and at least 60 votes. The Senate hasn’t agreed to the package the House plans to vote on.