Missile strikes yesterday killed 19 people and wounded dozens in Ukraine’s Odessa region, a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on a strategic island in a major setback to the Kremlin’s invasion.
Two children were among the dead and six among the injured, Ukrainian officials said, one day after US President Joe Biden announced US$800 million in new weapons for Kyiv at a NATO summit.
The missiles slammed into an apartment building and a recreation center in the town of Serhiivka about 80km south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flash point in the conflict.
Photo: Reuters
“The death toll is 19 people,” Ukrainian State Emergency Service head Serhiy Kruk wrote on Facebook, adding that 38 people were wounded.
The strikes were launched by aircraft that flew in from the Black Sea, Odessa Regional State Administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said.
“The worst-case scenario played out, and two strategic aircraft came to the Odessa region,” he said in a TV interview, adding they had fired “very heavy and very powerful” missiles.
Photo: AFP
There was no immediate comment from Russia on the strikes, which followed global outrage earlier this week when a strike destroyed a shopping center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, killing at least 18 civilians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied Moscow’s forces were responsible.
“The cruel manner in which the Russian aggressor takes the deaths of civilians in its stride and is again speaking of collateral damages is inhuman and cynical,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.
“The Russian population too must finally face up to this truth,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday hailed a “new” chapter of “history” with the EU, after Brussels on Thursday last week granted Ukraine “candidate status” in Kyiv’s push to join the 27-member bloc, even if membership is likely years away.
“We’re not close. Now we are together,” he told Ukraine’s parliament.
“We made a journey of 115 days to candidate status and our journey to membership shouldn’t take decades. We should make it down this road quickly,” he said.
One day earlier he announced Ukraine had begun exporting electricity to the EU, via Romania, as fears grow of an energy crisis in Europe due to reduced Russian gas deliveries.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Ukrainian lawmakers yesterday that membership was “within reach,” but urged them to make anti-corruption reforms.
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