President Zelensky Warns Against Russian Attack, Says ‘They Are Planning To Bomb Odessa’

"They are preparing to bomb Odessa. Odessa!" said the Ukrainian President in a video message. 

People cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling and bombing on March 5, 2022 | AFP

Russia-Ukraine Conflict: As the Russian invasion in Ukraine entered its eleventh day today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Sunday, warned against Russian attack on the historic port city of Odessa, reports news agency AFP. 

"They are preparing to bomb Odessa. Odessa!" said the Ukrainian President in a video message. 

 

VIDEO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Russian forces are preparing to bombard the port city of Odesa pic.twitter.com/pwLBD3EYbg

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 6, 2022

"Russians have always come to Odessa. They have always felt only warmth in Odessa. Only sincerity. And now what? Bombs against Odessa? Artillery against Odessa? Missiles against Odessa?" Zelensky said further. 

"It will be a war crime. It will be a historical crime," he stressed.

Since their invasion on February 24, the Russian Forces have overrun the city of Kherson and besieged the port of Mariupol in the southern Ukraine, making its significant progress in the region, but has not moved towards Odessa. 

Odessa is a cosmopolitan harbour on Ukraine’s southern coast with a population of around one million which include both Ukrainian and Russian speakers and Bulgarian and Jewish Minorities.   

A part of the Russian force has also headed west to Kherson, on the road towards Odessa. The port city is also close to the Moldovan border and the Russian-occupied region of Transnistria.  

Several Ukrainian cities have been bombed and shelled and the UN estiamtes that more than a million civilians have been driven from their homes by the fighting.