Russia hits an oil processing plant near the port city of Odesa

Caption

Smoke and fire are seen after shelling in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, April 3, 2022. / AP

The Russian military says it has struck an oil processing plant and fuel depots around the strategic Black Sea port of Odesa.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian ships and aircraft fired missiles on Sunday to strike the facilities, which he said were used to provide fuel to Ukrainian troops near Mykolaiv.

Konashenkov also said Russian strikes destroyed ammunition depots in Kostiantynivka and Khresyshche.

In an audio message posted by Italian news agency ANSA, Italian photographer Carlo Orlandi said Odessa woke to military sirens at 5:45 a.m. Sunday, followed immediately by the sounds of bombs falling on the port city from two aircraft.

He described a column of dark smoke rising from the targets, and flames from the buildings.

"What we can see is a dense screen of dark smoke, and one explosion after the other,″ Orlandi said.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the mayor of the capital of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has expressed shock at what he called "cruel war crimes" committed by Russian soldiers in the town of Bucha northwest of the capital.

Referring to reports of executed civilians, Klitschko told German daily Bild on Sunday that "what happened in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv can only be described as genocide."

An AP crew on Sunday saw the bodies of at least nine people who appear to have been executed. At least two of them had their hands tied behind their backs. They were all in civilian clothes and at least three were naked from the waist up. One appeared shot in the chest from close range.

Klitschko said Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for these "cruel war crimes," adding that civilians had been "shot with tied hands."

He called on the the whole world and especially Germany to immediately end gas imports from Russia.

He said that "especially for Germany, there can only be one consequence: Not a penny should go to Russia anymore, that's bloody money used to slaughter people. The gas and oil embargo must come immediately."

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