An American chef who cooked for Ukrainian soldiers said he saw Russian forces 'shooting at homes and hospitals' in Odesa

• An American chef who cooked for Ukrainian soldiers in Odesa said he saw Russian forces shoot into the city from the Black Sea.
• Terry Bass, 31, told Insider Russian forces shot at hospital buildings and residences.

From his home on the beach in Odesa, about 290 miles south of Kyiv, Terry Bass could easily see the horizon.

In the first days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Bass said he saw ships hiding off in the distance and "rockets coming through from the water." But then the ships began to close in and "come right up" to shore.

As the ships approach the shore, they fire into the city. Then, all of a sudden, Odesa begins to rumble.

"A rocket comes, and you hear a siren going off," Bass told Insider in a phone interview. "And then you just hear an explosion, or you hear bullets coming from the defense."

Bass, a 31-year-old American chef who cooked for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the battle, depicted in his interview with Insider harrowing scenes he saw in Odesa as Russian troops advanced their assault in the country. Bass has since fled the country but said he wanted to describe the brutal assault on the country.

Bass said he witnessed Russian forces shoot bombs into the city, which looks out onto the Black Sea on Ukraine's southern coast. Then he saw Russian ships "shooting in from the sea," and their bombs hit buildings and endangered civilians, he said.

"They're not shooting at military targets," he said. "They're shooting at homes and hospitals indiscriminately."

He added, "Sometimes you hear five explosions, six explosions in a row, maybe two, three times a day."

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a land, sea, and air assault against Ukraine last month, sending his troops into the country from several directions — with soldiers' sights on its capital, Kyiv.

US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have criticized Putin, calling his country's actions a violation of international law. They have imposed harsh sanctions against Russia and supplied weapons and additional aid to Ukraine, among other measures.

But on the ground in Ukraine, civilians are still reeling from the assault by Russia, Bass said, even as diplomatic talks continue between Ukraine and Russia, particularly to create humanitarian evacuation routes.

During a quiet moment after the attack from the ships during the first days of the invasion, Bass and some of his friends took a ride through the city to see the damage. The bombs took out an entire residential block, he said. The people who lived in those homes had received a warning and evacuated ahead of the bombings, but "the damage is done," he said. "Buildings are gone."

People who've stayed in Odesa and endured the bombings are "stone-cold," he said, adding that his neighbors and friends are "angry" and just wish that the Russian forces would retreat from the city.

"If you just walk through the city right now, you feel like it's 1941," he said, referencing the wreckage of cities during World War II.

'When you hear bombs all day, you just want to help'

Bass, who is from New York, has been in Ukraine since last December. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, he decided to volunteer for a friend who owns a catering company that wanted to deliver food to Ukrainian soldiers. Volunteers deliver between 400 and 500 meals a day, Bass said, mostly comprising salads and starchy foods like buckwheat or macaroni.

The food operation plans to keep going as long as resources hold, he said. But food is getting difficult to come by, and stores and restaurants in Odesa are running out of products.

Even buckwheat, a staple food of Ukraine, is already hard to find. Bass, while cooking for the soldiers, said he's been told to toast his own buckwheat because the stores have run out of already-prepared buckwheat.

The food and farmers' markets are "bare" and store shelves are empty, he said.

"There's no cash left," he said. "It's getting difficult to buy ingredients from the market because none of them accept credit or phone payments or bank transfers. So it's whatever we can get your hands on."

However, as the invasion advances in the country, Bass' family in America has urged him to leave. In the past few days, he heeded their call and left behind his friends and dog. He is currently staying in a hotel in Moldova. But he wishes he could have stayed and helped.

"I feel very guilty for leaving because I'm an able-bodied man who can still work," he said. "But my family was just crying and begging. So I left."