Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (AFP)
YAGIDNE, Ukraine – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday he hoped Russian leader Vladimir Putin would spend the rest of his life in a dark basement with a bucket for a toilet.
Zelensky spoke in the village of Yagidne, north of Kyiv, where he and German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck travelled to mark the one-year anniversary of the liberation of the settlement from Russian troops.
Soon after the invasion, the Russians forced 367 people -- nearly the entire population of Yagidne -- into a school basement measuring 200 square meters.
The villagers, including a six-week-old baby, were kept there for almost a month, and 11 of them died.
"After seeing all this, I hope the president of Russia will spend the rest of his days in a basement with a bucket for a toilet," the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelensky said the villagers who were held in the basement for 27 days recorded the names of those who died "so as not to forget them".
"And children wrote lines of the Ukrainian anthem," he added.
One of the survivors said some people died from lack of oxygen in the small cellar.
"At first it was cold here, but then there were more people and there was not enough oxygen," 38-year-old Valeriy Polgui told AFP.
"The elderly people lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, lost their mind and then died," he said.
Kyiv authorities and Western governments have accused Russian forces of committing numerous war crimes in Ukraine. Moscow denies the claims.
Russian drones strike Odesa
Russian drones struck the strategic Ukrainian port of Odesa, local authorities said in the early hours of Tuesday, adding that "damage" had been recorded.
"The enemy has just struck Odesa and the Odesa district with attack UAVs," local authorities said in a statement on Facebook, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.
"There is damage," the statement said without providing further details.
Citing the head of the Odesa district military administration, Yuriy Kruk, the statement said Ukraine's air defense forces were at work and warned of a possible second wave of attacks.
No other details were immediately provided.
The Black Sea port of Odesa was a favorite holiday destination for many Ukrainians and Russians before President Vladimir Putin sent troops into pro-Western Ukraine in February last year.
Since the start of the invasion Odesa has been bombed several times by Russian forces.
In January, the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO designated the historic center of Odesa a World Heritage in Danger site.