Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at the Kremlin after Russian missiles killed eight civilians in the port city of Odesa, as America’s top diplomat prepared to visit Ukraine for the first time since Moscow’s full-scale invasion began eight weeks ago.
In heated remarks, Zelensky called the Russians “bloody bastards”, “Nazis” and “Rashists” — a Ukrainian neologism mixing “Russians” and “fascists” — while pressing allies to increase deliveries of weaponry and ammunition in a bid to tip the war’s balance in Ukraine’s favour.
Russia has launched new offensives in the east and south of Ukraine that the country’s allies predict will bring some of the fiercest fighting yet. This week Moscow made clear that it wanted to occupy not only Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, but all of its south too, extending Russian control along the Black Sea coast to the Moldovan border.