A three-month-old baby girl, along with her mother and grandmother, are among those killed in a recent missile strike by Russian forces, Ukrainian officials say.

According to officials and local reporters, the three relatives were killed after a missile struck a residential building located in the port city of Odessa on Saturday. At least eight people have been killed in the attack, and 18 wounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the strike while speaking to reporters on Sunday.

"The war started when this baby was one month old," he said. 鈥淐an you imagine what is happening? They are filthy scum, there are no other words for it."

The president also vowed to punish those responsible for the attack.

Citing social media reports, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN identified the baby鈥檚 mother as Valeria Glodan. Glodan鈥檚 husband, Yury, shared on Facebook after the strike.

Taking place on the eve of Orthodox Easter, the shelling came as Russian troops pushed forward in an effort to gain full control over the Donbas region of Ukraine, pounding cities and towns located in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

According to Zelenskyy, there is evidence of Russian troops killing tens of thousands of civilians in the city of Mariupol and attempting to cover it up. He also said Ukraine has intercepted Russian conversations about troops 鈥渃oncealing the traces of their crimes."

As Zelenskyy prepared to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in Kyiv on Sunday, he also called on western countries for help in delivering more powerful weapons to Ukraine, including long-range air defence systems and warplanes.

Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine鈥檚 ambassador to Germany, also mentioned the deaths on Twitter while criticizing the German government for its hesitation in sending heavy weapons. In a tweet , Melnyk wrote that while the German government was 鈥渉esitating鈥� over the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, Russian forces were killing civilians, including the three-month-old baby and her mother.

 

With files from The Associated Press and Storyful.