The Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, in an exclusive interview with Italian public television RAI, he referred to Wednesday’s Russian missile attack in Odessa, where he was with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. In more detail, Zelensky underlined:

“Regarding yesterday’s incident, we were with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, making an official visit to the port. A ballistic missile fell at a distance of 300 meters. It is difficult, however, to say who they wanted to hurt”. “Putin, according to our intelligence services, tried to assassinate me more than ten times, but I don’t know if the number is accurate, I don’t count these attempts,” the Ukrainian president added.

Answering a question from Italian journalist Bruno Vespa, about those in Italy who do not support Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky added:

“Whoever does not support Ukraine automatically supports Russia and he doesn’t understand who Putin is. That part of Western society that does not help us and supports Putin, does not understand what war means, because it does not experience it firsthand. And I ask: if yesterday, when the attack in Odessa took place, Georgia Meloni was in the position of Greek Prime Minister, what would you say, what would the Italian people say?”

“We have promised not to use the German long-range missiles we are asking for against anyone, with the only exception being the occupied territories of Ukrainian territory. We need many kinds of munitions. We need them because with the right weaponry, you can respond to Russian troops and that can change the outcome of the war. The Russians are on the other bank of the Dnieper, but they have longer-range weapons and can hit targets that are 20 kilometers away from ours,” the Ukrainian president told RAI.

“It is possible that the target of the missile was the Ukrainian president or Mitsotakis”

“It cannot be ruled out that the Russian attack on the port of Odessa had as targeting the delegations of Volodymyr Zelensky or Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis”, a top adviser to the president of Ukraine said in the meantime.

The two leaders were inspecting the Ukrainian grain export corridor in the port of the Black Sea when the missile hit port infrastructure, Reuters comments.

“It was actually less than 500 meters from us. What was that?… You can’t rule that out it was intended for my president’s delegation or the delegation of foreign visitors,” characteristically stated on CNN Live Ihor Zovkva, Zelensky’s top diplomatic adviser.

Both Zelensky and Mitsotakis appeared at a press conference on Wednesday to state that they witnessed the Russian strike. Five people were killed in the attack, the Ukrainian military said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that its forces attacked a hangar housing Ukrainian navy drones in the portadding that “the goal was achieved.”

The infrastructure of the Ukrainian port of the Black Sea are a constant target for Russian attackswhich have intensified since mid-July, when Moscow abandoned a UN-brokered deal allowing safe passage of Ukrainian grain and Kiev created its own export corridor.

Zovkva stated that the missile was fired from Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

“The missile took less than three minutes to reach the target, the location of the port of Odessa,” Zovkva said.

“If we had sufficient air defenses, that ballistic missile could have been intercepted”he said.