Guernseyman Colin Wood says it is now "down to luck whether we stay safe" after Russian missiles hit an apartment block less than half a mile from where he lives with his wife, Olga, in the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the strikes on Odessa on Saturday killed at least eight civilians and wounded 18 others. A three-month-old baby was among those killed.
"The war started when this baby was one month old. Can you imagine what is happening?" said President Zelensky. "They are just bastards. I don't have any other word for it - just bastards."
Pictured: Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky, left, is appealing for more support from western nations as his country tries to defend itself from an invasion launched two months ago by Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, right.
Odessa is a strategically important port city in the south west of Ukraine. The last major strike on or near the city was in early April. But any hopes that Russia's recent partial retreat eastwards would spare Odessa further damage were dashed this weekend.
Mr Wood told Express that he and his wife were near more than one missile attack.
"There was an attack towards the west of the city, where I was walking at the time, and another in the east of the city, very close to where our apartment is," said Mr Wood.
"I heard the jet engines and the explosions in the east, including the Ukrainian defence missiles exploding.
"My wife heard the missiles that hit the apartment building about 600 metres from us."
Pictured: Russian missiles have attacked residential as well as military buildings, including this apartment block in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.
The most intense fighting continues in two industrial regions in the east of Ukraine - Luhansk and Donetsk - which together are now commonly referred to as Donbas. Kremlin-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces in Donbas since 2014, the year in which Russia also annexed the southern peninsula of Crimea.
There are fears that Odessa could be drawn even deeper into war if Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, tries to secure control of most of southern Ukraine, including forming a land corridor to Transnistria, a disputed region along Ukraine's south-western border with Moldova.
"It appears that the Russian general who said last week that they were going to join Crimea to Transnistria was not lying," said Mr Wood, referring to a speech made on Friday by Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of the central military district.
"It has once again become a very worrying time."
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
— Ministry of Defence ???????? (@DefenceHQ) April 24, 2022
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 24 April 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/Q3NumoWi88
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Pictured: On Sunday, the UK Ministry of Defence tweeted the latest intelligence about the status of the war.
However, Mr Wood is hopeful that Odessa's distance from land presently under Russian military control will help the city.
"I am not convinced that the Russians have the military ability to come 400+ kilometres to here, fighting every metre of that ground," he said.
"Since the Ukraine military sunk the Moskva [a Russian warship], their ships are staying a very long way offshore, so seaborne landings are unlikely, I think."
Pictured: Colin Wood and his wife, Olga, on their wedding day in more peaceful times.
At present, the couple are not planning on leaving Odessa, although they may re-evaluate if Russian forces are able to advance further westwards in the light of their inhumane actions in other parts of the country, such as Bucha, where evidence suggests they indiscriminately massacred hundreds of civilians and raped women and girls.
"We will stay for now, but keep a very close eye on reports," said Mr Wood.
"I will not allow Olga to be caught by the Russian military, having seen their barbarism across the entire country.
"We are as safe as it is possible to be, but having seen a residential block hit today very near us, and a number of dead and injured, it is down to luck whether we stay safe.
"We will do all that we can to stay out of harm's way."
"We pray it will end soon and the rebuilding can commence"
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