(CNN) � A missile strike hit civilian infrastructure in the Ukrainian city of , killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said Friday.
After the first missile struck the Black Sea port city Friday morning, killing and wounding civilians, Ukrainian emergency service personnel who had rushed to the scene were then caught in a second strike, in an attack known as a used by Russia throughout more than two years of its war in Ukraine.
“The Russian missile attack killed a paramedic and a rescue worker who had arrived at the scene after the first explosion to provide assistance. There are also heavily injured among the medics and rescuers,� Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration, wrote on Telegram.
The attacks come as Russians across the country are heading to the polls in carefully choreographed elections expected to deliver President Vladimir Putin a fifth term in power.
Russia fired the first missile at around 11 a.m. local time (5 a.m. ET), striking a civilian building and causing a fire to break out, Ukraine’s emergency services said. Rescuers arrived to try to extinguish the fire and search for survivors before being caught in the second strike shortly after.
As well as the 14 killed, at least 46 people were injured, including seven emergency services personnel, Kiper said.
Odesa, a crucial port for Ukraine’s grain exports and a major base for its navy, has sustained huge damage after months of Russian strikes.
Last week, a Russian missile exploded just a few hundred meters away from a carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis � the leader of a NATO member state. Both men said they were close enough to see and hear the strike.
Zelensky frequently makes high-risk trips to the front lines and has welcomed dozens of world leaders to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. But the attack was one of the closest calls for the president.
After the strike, Zelensky made a renewed plea for his allies to provide more air defenses. While Ukraine’s capital Kyiv is relatively well protected by the US-made Patriot system, not all Ukrainian cities enjoy the same level of shielding.
Mitsotakis called the strike a “vivid reminder that there is a real war going on here. Every day there is a war, which not only affects the front, the soldiers � it affects our innocent fellow citizens.�
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