KYIV, Ukraine — With Russian troops besieging cities in Ukraine’s south, spurring a humanitarian catastrophe even as they press their offensive around the capital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that the strategic coastal city of Odesa would soon be under attack as he again urged Western countries to create a no-fly zone.
“Russians have always visited Odesa, felt only warmth in Odesa. … And now what? Bombs on Odesa? Artillery on Odesa?” Zelenskyy said in an impassioned video address Sunday. “It will be a war crime. It will be a historical crime.”
His pleas came as as Ukrainian authorities tried and failed for a second consecutive day to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha, two cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Mariupol, a port city of half a million people, is a key part of Russia’s offensive to deny Ukraine any exit to the sea. An earlier cease-fire on Saturday broke down with both the Ukrainian and Russian sides accusing the other of violations.
