Russia flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday in missile attacks near Ukraine’s port of Odesa that authorities say killed at least 21 people, hours after Russian troops abandoned the Black Sea outpost of Snake Island.
Locals in the resort village of Serhiivka helped workers pick through the rubble of the nine-storey apartment block, a section of which had been completely destroyed in the early-morning strike. Walls and windows of a neighbouring 14-storey apartment block were also damaged by the blast wave. Nearby holiday camps were also hit.
“We came here to the site, assessed the situation together with emergency workers and locals, and together helped those who survived and those who unfortunately died. We helped to carry them away,” said Oleksandr Abramov, who lives nearby and had rushed to the scene when he heard the blast.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa regional administration, said 21 people had been confirmed killed, including a 12-year-old boy.
Among the fatalities was an employee of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center set up by Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova in the resort. Five others were injured.
“These peaceful people made the days of the children of Moldova more beautiful, they took care of their rehabilitation with great love and devotion,” Moldovan Health Minister Alla Nemerenko said on her Facebook page.
The regional governor said the missiles had been fired from the direction of the Black Sea.
The Kremlin denied targeting civilians.
“I would like to remind you of the president’s words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
The attack came just four days after Russia struck a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people. Kyiv says Moscow has escalated its long-range attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline in what Ukraine says are war crimes. Russia says it has been aiming at military sites.
Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russia calls the invasion a “special operation” to root out nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.
“PUSH THEM BACK”
The strike on Serhiivka took place shortly after Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a strategically important outcrop about 140 km (85 miles) south east of Odesa that it seized on the war’s first day. They had used it to control the north western Black Sea.
In his nightly video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed what he described as a strategic victory at Snake Island.
“It does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet ensure that the enemy will not come back,” he said. “But this significantly limits the actions of the occupiers. Step by step, we will push them back from our sea, our land and our sky.”
