(CNN Spanish) — A shopping mall and two hotels were hit by Russian military strikes on Monday in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
Three Kinzhal missiles — Russia’s new hypersonic missiles — were fired from a plane and hit a “tourist infrastructure target,” said Sergey Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa regional military administration.
Two people were hospitalized from the impact of the missile, Bratchuk said. CNN could not confirm the injuries.
Bratchuk did not identify the target, but CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of two videos circulating on social networks, which show significant damage to a hotel in the town of Zatoka. One of the videos was first published by the Odessa City Council.
This is the second hotel in the Odessa region that was attacked on Monday. It is not clear why the two hotels were attacked, nor who may have stayed in them.
A shopping center was also hit by seven missiles, according to the Southern Operational Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Five people were injured and one died in the attack, he said.
Meanwhile, the fires caused by missile attacks in the city of Odesa, in southern Ukraine, have been extinguished, the country’s State Emergency Service reported on Monday night.
One person died and five were hospitalized, according to Ukrainian authorities. Detailed information about other injuries and possible casualties is still being clarified, they said.
The hypersonic missile: The new Khinzal missile made its combat debut early in the war and has only been used once before, according to Western intelligence sources. It carries a conventional payload of up to 480 kilograms.
The attacks caused extensive damage, with images of the city showing widespread devastation. One of the missile strikes in the Suvorov district set fire to three warehouses with a total area of 1,200 square meters, according to Ukrainian officials.
a bit of context: Odessa and its surroundings have seen a sharp increase in attacks in the past week, with Russian forces using submarines, surface ships and aircraft to launch missiles.
44 bodies recovered from the rubble in the occupied city of Izium
The bodies of 44 civilians were found in the rubble of a five-story building in the city of Izium, currently controlled by Russian troops, according to the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov.
Syniehubov said the building had been “completely destroyed by the occupants”. It is unclear when the attack occurred.
Russian forces have controlled Izium for almost two months. Before that, the city was hotly contested and heavily bombed.
Syniehubov said that locals who had stayed in Izium had excavated the site. He said “there was no special equipment to dismantle the rubble, everything is done by hand. And of course it’s not done all the time. When there’s no shelling, people go out and try to dismantle those blockades.”
What is not clear is whether Russian forces in the area were aware of the operation and allowed the bodies to be recovered.
Syniebuhov said that since the occupation of Izium some 1,700 people had been evacuated while what he called a “green corridor” existed. “After that, the occupiers did not allow people to be taken out or humanitarian aid to be brought there.”
He also said that a town near Kharkiv – Tsirkuny – had been liberated and described the scene there as a “total war crime”.
“There are many houses destroyed, many office buildings, schools. There are corpses, bodies of civilians. The occupants did not even take their own soldiers, they are on the streets, in private homes, etc. We still have a lot of work to do to clean up everything”.
WHO verifies 200 attacks on health centers in Ukraine since the start of the war
The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 200 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine since the start of the war, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday, urging Russia to “stop this war.”
From Kyiv, after spending two days in Ukraine, Tedros said he was “deeply moved” by what he had seen and heard.
Tedros said the attacks on health facilities “must stop”, adding: “There is one medicine that the WHO cannot supply, and that Ukraine needs more than any other, and that is peace.”
“So we keep asking the Russian Federation to stop this war,” he said.
Tedros said he had discussed the country’s health situation with Ukrainian officials and said that the WHO will continue to support Ukraine’s health system.
“My message to all the people of Ukraine is that the WHO is with you,” he said.
The WHO chief said that despite the devastation, he had also seen “extraordinary resistance” in Ukraine, as people tried to restore their lives.
“My time here has affected me very personally,” he said.
As someone, myself, who grew up in a war zone, I understand very well how the people of Ukraine feel. I know the impact, I know the devastation of war firsthand and I felt very, very sad when Russia invaded Ukraine,” he added.
Russian forces reinforce their presence on the border near Kharkiv, according to the Ukrainian army
A Ukrainian serviceman loads a shell into a mortar in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on May 9. (Serhii Nuzhnenko/Archyde.com)
The Russian army is reinforcing its presence along the northern border as Ukrainian forces strike back around the city of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday.
“The enemy maintains certain forces and means of air defense in the Belgorod region [en Rusia] in full readiness mode,” said the General Staff, and “continues to focus its efforts on defending the occupied borders to prevent the advance of units of our troops towards the state border.”
Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, is located about 39 kilometers from the border with the Russian region of Belgorod.
The enemy is expected to continue defiant actions on the state border [con] Ukraine to curb the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces,” the General Staff said.
Local Ukrainian officials in areas south of Kharkiv reported Monday that some Russian units had moved north, possibly to try to reinforce Russian supply lines from Belgorod. CNN cannot confirm the move.
Last week, a video circulating on Telegram showed Ukrainian forces retaking the town of Molodova, just 21 kilometers southeast of the Ukraine-Russia border. CNN has geolocated and verified the authenticity of the video.
More than 8 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the UN
More than eight million people were internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the latest report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency.
More than 18% — or nearly one in five — of Ukraine’s prewar population is now internally displaced, according to the fourth Report on Internal Displacement in Ukraine, released Monday.
“The needs of the internally displaced and all those affected by the war in Ukraine are growing by the minute,” IOM Director General António Vitorino said Tuesday.
Evacuees from Mariupol arrive by bus at a registration and processing area for internally displaced persons in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, on May 8. (Photo: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
The latest survey, conducted between April 29 and May 3, revealed that 63% of internally displaced persons are women.
More than 50% of displaced households have children, 55% include elderly members and more than 30% have people with chronic illnesses, according to the survey.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 5.9 million refugees have left Ukraine for neighboring countries, for a total of at least 13.9 million people who have been displaced since the beginning of the Russian invasion at the end of February.
Japan extends sanctions against Russia, including its prime minister and oligarchs
Japan on Tuesday expanded sanctions against Russia, freezing the assets of more than 130 people, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
The new sanctions affect eight Russian citizens and 133 members of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The list includes Mishustin, oligarch Vladimir Bogdanov and relatives of oligarch Gennady Timshenko, according to the ministry. It is unknown if these officials have assets in Japan.
Japan also extended its export ban to 71 other Russian organizations, including manufacturers and research institutes, according to the statement.
Some background: Since March, Japan has introduced a series of sanctions against Russia, including freezing the assets of President Vladimir Putin and members of his family in response to the invasion.
Russia has responded by imposing its own sanctions on Japan, such as banning the entry of Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Lithuania declares war in Ukraine “genocide” and accuses Russia of “perpetrating terrorism”
The Lithuanian parliament passed a resolution on Tuesday declaring the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “genocide” and Russia a perpetrator of terrorism.
In the resolution, the Seimas, the Parliament of Lithuania, recognizes “the large-scale armed aggression – the war – against Ukraine by the armed forces of the Russian Federation and its political and military leaders […] as a genocide against the Ukrainian people”.
Passed unanimously, the resolution accuses the Russian military of “deliberately and systematically attacking civilian targets,” and declares Russia “a state that supports and perpetrates terrorism.”
The Seimas also called for the creation of an international court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.