German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck came within sight of the aftermath of a Russian missile strike during his trip to Ukraine, as a huge column of smoke rose over the port city of Odessa on Friday.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, several missiles had hit the seaport of Pivdennyi near Odessa on the Black Sea. The attack occurred at around 3 pm (1200 GMT).
When Habeck's delegation passed the area around three hours later, a high column of smoke could still be seen in the sky.
Zelensky had reported the impact in a speech broadcast to the NATO-Ukraine Council in Brussels.
The governor of the Odessa region, Oleh Kiper, stated that one man had been taken to hospital with shrapnel injuries. There had also been a fire, he said.
There were three air-raid alerts during Habeck's stay in the Mykolaiv region in south-eastern Ukraine. Two other alerts were for possible missiles fired from the direction of the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula.
Habeck had to go to an air-raid shelter three times during the day, the first time before his departure from Kiev in the early morning.
Habeck left Ukraine in the evening and travelled to neighbouring Moldova, where he planned to meet government representatives before returning to Germany.
