Spike in Deadly Russian Attacks on Odesa, Other Ukrainian Cities Causing Immeasurable Suffering, Destruction, Top Political, Humanitarian Officials Tell Security Council
The Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa has become a frequent target of missile and drone attacks in recent days and weeks, with deadly consequences, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, as delegates condemned Moscow’s intensified attacks against Ukrainian cities.
These include a lethal missile strike on 6 March — while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis were visiting — which reportedly occurred a few hundred metres from the two leader’s convoy. In another reported incident last weekend, Moscow’s strikes hit a high-rise residential building leaving 12 dead, including five children.
“Odesa is far from being the only Ukrainian city under constant fire,” said Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, detailing reported civilian casualties in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia. Expressing concern over reports that the fighting is spreading to new residential areas in eastern Ukraine, he observed: “Throughout this war, fighting that came to Ukrainian villages, towns and cities led to complete or near-complete destruction at the hands of Russian forces.”
“This horrific pattern must not be perpetuated,” he underscored. He then stressed that States’ territorial integrity and political independence are fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations and “at the heart of our multilateral order”. Reports of Moscow’s plans to organize and hold its March presidential elections in the Ukrainian territories currently under its control are “deeply disturbing”, he said, adding that attempted illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory has no validity under international law.
Lisa Doughten, Director of Financing and Partnerships, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) — speaking on behalf of Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths — said that the latest wave of escalatory attacks in Odesa, Kharkiv, Sumy and Donetsk regions over the past few days shows how the conflict continues to inflict immeasurable human suffering, death and destruction. The recent attacks have left many other civilians without electricity, heat and water and rendered thousands homeless and in need of humanitarian assistance.
Noting the lack of humanitarian access to Russian-occupied cities and towns in Donetska, Khersonska, Luhanska and Zaporizka oblasts, she voiced deep concern over the fate of civilians in these territories who cannot be reached at any adequate scale. “The consequences for an estimated 1.5 million people in need of life-saving assistance there are unthinkable,” she cautioned. Donors have so far provided 11 per cent of the $3.1 billion required for the 2024 Ukraine humanitarian needs and response plan. More financial support is urgently needed to sustain operations, she said, adding that the UN and its partners have adapted operations to stay and deliver critical supplies to nearly 13,000 war-affected residents in the front-line communities.
Marking International Women’s Day, she highlighted the conflict’s impact on women and girls, particularly the increase in gender-based violence — “a shocking hallmark of this war”. A lack of sufficient resources to sustain and expand a network of medical and social care services means many of the 2.5 million people anticipated to be subjected to gender-based violence in the coming year — notably acute for displaced women and girls near the frontlines — will not have access to the services they need.
In the following discussion, several Council members stated their commitment to help Ukraine rebuild. The speaker for the Republic of Korea said it would deliver another $2.3 billion in addition to the $140 million already provided. France’s delegate said that his country has committed almost €300 million in humanitarian aid since the beginning of the conflict and has organized 50 operations to deliver humanitarian freight. His counterpart for the United Kingdom pledged an additional £325 million to help Ukraine defend itself.
The representative of Japan, Council President for March, stated that his Government “will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes” and will continue to support its resilient reconstruction. Likewise, the speaker for Greece said that his country stands ready to offer the port of Alexandroupolis as a hub for the dispatch of aid to Ukraine, as well as the significant Greek merchant fleet to transport goods, food and energy resources.
Numerous Council members — among them the representatives of Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Switzerland, Guyana and Malta — condemned the recent attacks, stressed the need to uphold the principles of the UN Charter and international law, and pledged continued support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The representative of the United States described the Russian aerial assaults on cities and critical infrastructure across Ukraine as part of “a campaign to decimate Ukraine’s economy after failing to defeat its military.” Moscow has destroyed more than 300,000 tons of grain and vital storage facilities, he noted. Further, he welcomed arrest warrants — recently issued by the International Criminal Court — for Sergei Kobylash, former Commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Aerospace Force, and Viktor Sokolov, Commander of the Black Sea Fleet, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Echoing that, the representative of France stressed that the war is “creating suffering well beyond Ukraine’s borders”. When Moscow strikes cereal infrastructure, it provokes food insecurity that “weighs heavily on vulnerable populations worldwide”. To respond to this, France will continue supporting efforts to enable Ukrainian cereal exports, such as the “Solidarity Lanes” and “Grain from Ukraine” initiatives.
The speaker for Slovenia pointed out that attacks on Odesa have become so regular that “they have grown into events that are completely overseen by the international community”. Air raids sound, drones or missiles appear, infrastructure is reduced to rubble, civilians are buried underneath and — at the end — attack sites are covered with flowers, candles and toys. “So this has to stop,” he underscored, stating that the international community and the Council cannot allow this to become “ordinary life” for the inhabitants of Ukrainian cities.
However, “Russia won’t stop until it is stopped,” said Poland’s delegate, stressing that inactivity, indolence and indifference will only encourage violence. The international community must, therefore, continue providing concrete assistance to Ukraine, as the attacks on Odesa “remind us that we cannot grow tired of the war against Ukraine”, she observed.
The representative of Latvia, also speaking for Estonia and Lithuania, pointed out that Moscow’s war of aggression is carried out with the complicity of Minsk and military support from Tehran and Pyongyang. Stating that just and sustainable peace “cannot be achieved at Ukraine’s expense”, she stressed: “Any half solutions or any Russian gains from the war will just encourage further aggression.”
On the soon-to-be-held “elections” in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the representative of the European Union, in its capacity as observer, said: “Russia has no legitimate basis for any such action.”
The representative of Ecuador said that continued bloodshed and destruction not only impact civilians in Ukraine and the Russian Federation but threaten escalation. “Each act of violence, each inflammatory statement, every attack on civilian infrastructure and every life lost brings us dangerously closer to a ‘point of no return’, where the possibilities of a peaceful solution are evaporating,” he stressed.
“The earlier the talks start, the sooner peace will arrive,” said China’s delegate, calling on all parties to exercise restraint, enhance direct engagement and collectively explore viable solutions. The international community should increase diplomatic efforts to create conditions for a political settlement. He also supported the holding – “in due course” – of an international peace conference, recognized by both the Russian Federation and Ukraine, ensuring equal participation and fair discussion of all peace plans.
Also urging a solution guided by the “legitimate security concerns of both parties”, Algeria’s delegate said that escalation and confrontation are only leading to more tension, more destruction and – most importantly – a higher death toll, especially among civilians. “I couldn’t imagine how civilians can feel when their security is continuously under threat,” he said. This, however, is how many civilians are living every single day on both sides of the border.
The representative of Ukraine said that, from 26 February to 3 March, Russian Federation forces used approximately 400 guided aerial bombs, over 50 Shahed drones and more than 40 missiles against Ukrainian cities and villages. Detailing several attacks on the city of Odesa, which has endured almost daily shelling, he noted that injuries caused by missiles and drones are often severe and complex to recover from. “It is evident that by choosing Odesa as one of the main targets for their airstrikes, the Russian aggressors try to disrupt the functioning of the maritime corridor established by the Ukrainian Naval Forces after Russia undermined the Black Sea Grain Initiative,” he said.
On the war’s humanitarian consequences, he said that, to date, the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have launched investigations into 143,508 war crimes and 16,650 crimes against national security, which have killed 11,973 civilians, including 534 children, and wounded another 19,200, including more than 1,200 children. The Russian Federation also continues its abhorrent practice of abducting Ukrainian children: Ukrainian authorities have identified 19,546 children who have been deported to that country, he added.
The speaker for the Russian Federation countered that high-precision strikes by its air-space forces on military targets in Ukraine bear no danger for the civilians of that country. Rather, ordinary Ukrainians see that their lives are threatened exclusively by unprofessional Ukraine’s air-defence systems that were also deployed in residential districts. On the 6 March strike on Odesa, he said: “Do you really think that if we wanted to hit Zelenskyy’s motorcade, we wouldn’t be able to do so?” This strike destroyed a facility producing maritime drones, he pointed out, adding: “For us, that target is much more important than Zelenskyy, who is crisscrossing the frontlines areas, taking selfies in cities before the Russian army liberates them.”
He further warned that numerous irresponsible European politicians want to escalate the Ukrainian conflict, taking it to a new level of “no longer proxy” but “a direct confrontation between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)”.