Russian rocket attacks on residential areas in a coastal town near the port city of Odessa early Friday killed at least 19 people, Ukrainian authorities said, a day after Russian forces pulled out of a strategic Black Sea island.
Video of the pre-dawn attack shows the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Sergievka, about 50 kilometers southwest of Odessa. Ukrainian news reported that the missiles hit a high-rise apartment building and a resort area.
“A terrorist state is killing our people. In response to defeats on the battlefield, they are fighting civilians,” said Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine’s security service said 19 people were killed, including two children. Another 38, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalized with injuries. Most of the victims were inside the apartment building, Ukrainian emergency services said.
Firefighters remove debris from a damaged residential building in the city of Sergievka, Ukraine, on Friday. (Nina Lyashonok/Associated Press)
Odesa regional government spokesman Sergey Bratchuk said on the Telegram messaging app that another 30 were injured.
In eastern Ukraine, where Russia is waging its main ground offensive, Ukrainian forces held on to the city of Lisychansk, despite officials describing it as the target of a ferocious artillery attack.
Download from Snake Island
The airstrikes in Odessa followed the withdrawal of Russian forces from Snake Island on Thursday, a move expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odessa. The island is located along a busy shipping line. Russia took control of it in the early days of the war with the apparent hope of using it as a springboard for an attack on Odessa.
The Kremlin described the withdrawal from Snake Island as a “gesture of goodwill”. The Ukrainian military said a barrage of artillery and rockets forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of troops being withdrawn was not disclosed.
Russian bombing killed large numbers of civilians earlier in the war, including at a hospital and theater in the port city of Mariupol. Mass casualties appear to have become less frequent as Moscow concentrates on capturing the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
However, a rocket strike on Monday at a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, a city in central Ukraine, killed at least 19 people and wounded 62 others, authorities said on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied Russian forces attacked the mall, saying his country does not strike civilian facilities. He claimed that the target in Kremenchuk was a nearby weapons depot, echoing the remarks of his military officials.
Artillery attack
Russia has focused its main ground campaign in the east, where it is demanding that Kyiv cede full control of two provinces to pro-Russian separatist proxies.
Ukraine’s last bastion in Luhansk province is the town of Lisichansk across the Seversky Donets River, which is close to being encircled by a relentless Russian artillery barrage.
The Russians were shelling Lisychansk from different directions and approaching from several sides, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Ukrainian television.
Local residents stand next to a damaged apartment building in Sergievka on Friday after Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles were fired. (Nina Lyashonok/Associated Press)
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