Missiles pound Odesa after Russia marks WW2 victory

Buildings in Odesa lay in ruins on Tuesday, a day after Kremlin forces pounded the southern Ukrainian port with missiles and Russian President Vladimir Putin led defiant celebrations marking the Soviet's victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

While Putin was silent about plans for any escalation, he exhorted Russians to battle and repeated his assertions that they were again fighting Nazis. His forces continued to destroy the infrastructure of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where the last Ukrainian troops are holding out.

"You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War Two. So that there is no place in the world for executioners, castigators and Nazis," Putin said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his own speech on Monday, promised Ukrainians would triumph.

"On the Day of Victory over Nazism, we are fighting for a new victory. The road to it is difficult, but we have no doubt that we will win," said Zelenskiy.

In Odesa, the major Black Sea port for exporting agricultural products, one person was killed and five people were injured when seven missiles hit a shopping centre and a depot, Ukraine's armed forces said on Facebook.

Video footage from the scene showed fire and rescue workers combing through piles of rubble dousing still smoking wreckage.