RUSSIAN MISSILE DESTROYS TENNIS PLAYER YASTREMSKA'S ODESA APARTMENT

Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska said a Russian missile destroyed her family's apartment in Odesa on Friday evening. She said a Kalibr cruise missile struck the building directly and shared videos and photographs on Instagram showing the block on fire. Her family's flat, on the 22nd floor, was reduced to rubble, according to reports. The wider strike on the tower block killed two people and injured 37 others, including a baby, reports say. Yastremska said the only item to survive was a Roland Garros towel, calling it "symbolic" and writing that "a piece of world tennis survived" while "our home did not".

Odesa, a Black Sea port, has been repeatedly targeted by Russian strikes since the invasion, Yastremska said. It is not the first time her family has been affected — her grandmother's Odesa apartment was struck by a missile in January 2024. Yastremska tagged the WTA and the ITF in her post, saying the images showed "the true meaning" of their neutrality policy "from the Ukrainian side". Russian and Belarusian players have been allowed to compete internationally without representing their countries since the invasion, while their national tennis federations remain suspended from ITF membership.

Yastremska is not the only Ukrainian tennis player to describe being personally affected by the war. Marta Kostyuk said a rocket exploded around 100 metres from her parents' home in Kyiv hours before her first-round match at this year's French Open. Kostyuk said Russian players who have stayed silent on the war "have made it very clear whose side they are on" after four years of conflict. Yastremska reached the Australian Open semi-final in 2024 and has been ranked as high as world number 21.