Four-year-old child and pregnant woman among those in a serious condition after strike on seafront park in Black Sea port city

People look on as the local landmark burns after a Russian missile strike in Odesa on April 29.

A Russian missile attack on a building known as “Harry Potter’s Castle” in the Ukrainian port of Odesa has killed at least five people and wounded several others, including a former lawmaker for a pro-Russian party who founded a law school in the building.

The attack on Odesa late on April 29 killed three women and one man, Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. He reported later that another man died of a stroke suffered as a result of the attack.

Of the 32 people who were injured, 25 are in the hospital, he said. Among them are two children, ages 5 and 16, and one pregnant woman. The 5-year-old is in extremely serious condition, he said, adding that six of the adults were also in serious condition.

Video showed the Gothic-style building, perched on the edge of the Black Sea, with flames shooting out of its roof in several places as firefighters battled to get the blaze under control.

Serhiy Kivalov, formerly a member of the Party of Regions in parliament, lives at the site, where he runs the Odesa Law Academy.

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The strike came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the West to speed up deliveries of desperately needed weapons for depleted and outgunned Ukrainian troops.

Zelenskiy made his comments in Kyiv at a joint news conference with visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. He said that small quantities of weapons and ammunition had begun arriving in Ukraine, but he called for the deliveries to gain momentum faster in order to be useful.

“Timely support for our army. Today I don’t see anything positive on this point yet. There are supplies, they have slowly begun, but this process needs to be sped up,” he said.

“Promptness in supply literally means a stabilization of the front line…. Together we must disrupt the Russian offensive.”

An influx of weapons is expected to flow after U.S. President Joe Biden signed a long-delayed $61 billion military aid package last week. Biden said the package would include air defense munitions to help Ukraine protect its cities and infrastructure, artillery shells, and long-range missile systems.

Stoltenberg, visiting the Ukrainian capital for the third time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, acknowledged “serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield.”

“For months, the U.S. was unable to agree a package and European allies have been unable to deliver ammunition at the scale we promised,” he added. “Ukraine has been outgunned for months and forced to ration its ammunition…. More support is on the way.”