Dayana Yastremska, a Ukrainian tennis player ranked 113th in the world, declared that a Kalibr cruise missile launched by Russia has destroyed her family's flat in Odesa.
She marked the devastation by posting a photo of a burning multi‑storey residential building on social media, stating, “A direct hit by a Kalibr cruise missile.” In the picture, the only item that survived the blast was a legendary orange clay towel from the Roland Garros tournament.
Yastremska posted a follow‑up photo of the battered towel hanging from the wreckage, writing, “This is what the ‘Russian world’ looks like. The only thing that survived was a Roland Garros towel.” She urged the Women’s Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation to see the images “through our eyes.”
According to Odesa regional head Oleh Kiper, the missile and drone attack injured 37 people, including a baby, and left two individuals missing. The incident is part of a string of attacks that have repeatedly targeted Ukrainian athletes’ homes since the invasion began in 2022.
Yastremska, who reached the Australian Open semi‑finals in 2024, also highlighted that this is not the first time a Ukrainian athlete’s residence has been hit, citing football midfielder Heorhiy Sudakov’s experience with a drone strike in Kyiv.
