IAN GALLAGHER: Hunt for bodies in debris of city that protects Odessa

Blinds and ripped curtains hang from blown-out windows, fluttering in the spring breeze like bunting.

A crane swings slowly back and forth, removing debris loaded by firemen searching for bodies. In the vast, normally bustling square below there is silence, save for the hum of the crane’s motor.

It has been five days since a Russian cruise missile tore a gaping hole in the nine-storey regional government headquarters in Mykolaiv, the city at the front line of the battle for southern Ukraine, and the gap between life and death has all but closed.

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