Dayana Yastremska says a Russian strike demolished her family's apartment in Odesa, and regional authorities reported 37 people wounded and two missing in the attack on Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk on Friday night.
Posting images of a burning residential block, the 26-year-old wrote, "This is what the 'Russian world' looks like. A direct hit by a Kalibr cruise missile." She also shared a photograph of an orange Roland Garros towel hanging from the wreckage, adding, "The only thing that survived was a Roland Garros... towel."
Yastremska detailed the damage on social media and appealed directly to the sport's governing bodies, tagging the Women's Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation and telling them, "Look at these images through our eyes." She described the loss as symbolic, writing that a piece of world tennis had survived while her home had not.
The player, who reached the Australian Open semifinal in 2024 and is currently 113th in the women's world singles rankings, also competed at this year's US Open, where she was eliminated in the first round.
Odesa regional head Oleh Kiper supplied the casualty figures, saying 37 people were injured, including a baby, and two were missing following a combination of missile and drone strikes. Separate reporting in the region has noted similar incidents affecting sportspeople before: last year, Ukraine international Heorhiy Sudakov said a Russian drone badly damaged his flat in Kyiv while his wife and child were at home.
Yastremska's images and direct appeals underline the personal toll of strikes on civilian homes in Ukraine and place pressure on international sports institutions to reckon with the conflict's immediate impact on athletes and their families.
