???? Live: Three killed in Odesa following Russian missile strike

Issued on: 14/06/2023 – 07:41Modified: 14/06/2023 – 07:49

7:50am: Belarus receives delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, says Lukashenko

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

“We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.

“The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he said.

7:15am: Three people killed in Russian missile strike on Odesa

At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, authorities said.

Russia fired four Kalibr missiles from a ship in the Black Sea, Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the region’s military administration, said on Telegram.

A strike on a retail chain’s warehouse killed three employees and wounded seven others, he said.

“There may be people under the rubble,” he added.

Six other people were wounded after a business centre, shops and a residential complex in the city centre were damaged “as a result of air combat and the blast wave”, he said.

The attack came a day after missile strikes on the hometown of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky killed 11 people.

06:00am: Russia urges ‘transparent’ investigation into Nord Stream blasts

A “transparent and objective” international investigation in the blasts at the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines is needed, a high-ranking Russian diplomat to the United States said early on Wednesday.

Commenting on reports that the US reportedly warned Ukraine not to attack the pipelines under the Baltic Sea, Andrey Ledenev, minister-counsellor at the embassy, said the role of the United States in the blasts should also be “clarified”.

“It would be useful to think about the reasons for the stubborn unwillingness of the collective West to launch a transparent and objective international investigation under the auspices of the UN Security Council in the terrorist attacks in the Baltic Sea,” Ledenev was quoted as saying in a post on the embassy’s Telegram messaging channel.

03:25am: Fire breaks out in Ukraine’s Odesa from Russian missile attack

A fire broke out near a business centre and the warehouse of a retail chain was hit in a Russian missile attack overnight on the Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukraine’s officials said early on Wednesday.

Air defence forces shot down two missiles over the city, the city’s administration said on its Telegram messaging app. It was not immediately clear how many missiles targeted the city.

“Information about the scale of destruction and casualties is being clarified,” the administration said.

12:20pm: Zelensky seeks tougher sanctions on Russian missile components

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for tougher sanctions to halt the flow of components used in Russian missiles, saying it was cheaper to stop their transfer than to improve anti-aircraft systems against their deployment.

It was the second time in a little more than a week that Zelensky had called for tightened rules to halt what Ukrainian authorities call “missile terror” against civilian targets.

The missile used in the assault contained about 50 components produced in other countries and that the issue had been discussed on Tuesday with diplomats in Kyiv, Zelensky said.

“Unfortunately, Russia still has the opportunity to receive critical components for the production of missiles, manufactured by companies from different countries, including partner countries,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

All Ukraine’s partners have the list of companies that supply Russia with the components, he said.

Key developments from Tuesday, June 13:

Russian air strikes hit several buildings in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih early Tuesday, leaving at least eleven dead and dozens wounded, local authorities said, as drone and missile attacks were reported in Kyiv and other cities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday alternated threats of a new Russian offensive to grab more Ukrainian land with statements about the Kremlin’s readiness for peace talks. Speaking during a wide-ranging meeting with Russian military correspondents and war bloggers, he made some of his most extensive comments about the conflict since sending the troops into Ukraine more than 15 months ago.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)