POKROVSK, Ukraine –
Russian missile strikes on residential areas killed at least 19 people in a Ukrainian city near Odessa early Friday, authorities said. The airstrikes pierced cautious relief expressed a day earlier after Russian forces withdrew from a Black Sea island from where they could have mounted an assault on the city with Ukraine’s largest port.
Video of the predawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Odessa. The Ukrainian president’s office said three Kh-22 missiles fired by Russian bombers hit an apartment building and a camp.
“A terrorist country is killing our people. In response to battlefield defeats, they fight civilians,” said Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Large numbers of civilians were killed in Russian attacks and shelling early in the war, including at a hospital, a theater used as a bomb shelter, and a train station. Until this week, mass casualties involving residents appeared to be less frequent as Moscow focused on capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Asked about Friday’s attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow’s claim that it was not targeting residential areas during the war, now in its fifth month. The Russian military is trying to attack ammunition depots, weapons repair factories and troop training facilities, he said.
The Ukrainian Security Service said 19 people were killed, including two children. He said 38 others, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalized with injuries. Most of the victims were in the apartment building, Ukrainian emergency officials said.
The airstrikes followed the withdrawal of Russian forces from Snake Island on Thursday, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odessa, home to Ukraine’s largest port. The island is located along a busy shipping lane.
Russia took control of it in the early days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odessa. The Kremlin described the departure of Russian troops from Snake Island as a “goodwill gesture” intended to facilitate shipments of grain and other agricultural products to Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world.
The Ukrainian military claimed that a barrage from its artillery and missiles forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of troops withdrawn was not disclosed.
The island rose to prominence early in the war as a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invasion. Ukrainian troops there reportedly received a demand from a Russian warship to surrender or be bombed. The answer supposedly came: “Go (expletive) yourself.”
Zelenskyy said that although the withdrawal did not guarantee the security of the Black Sea region, it would “significantly limit” Russian activities there.
“Step by step, we will get (Russia) out of our sea, our land, our sky,” he said in his late-night speech.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces kept up their pressure to encircle the last resistance stronghold in Luhansk, one of the two provinces that make up the Donbas region. Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the region for eight years.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were trying to encircle the city of Lysychansk and fighting for control of an oil refinery on the outskirts of the city.
“The shelling of the city is very intense,” Haidai told The Associated Press. “The occupiers are destroying one house after another with heavy artillery and other weapons. The residents of Lysychansk hide in the basements almost all day.”
The offensive has so far failed to cut Ukraine’s supply lines, although the main road leading west was not being used due to constant Russian bombardment, the governor said. “Evacuation is impossible,” he added.
But Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday that Russian and Luhansk separatist forces had taken control of the refinery, as well as a mine and a gelatin factory in Lysychansk “over the past three days.” .
Ukraine’s presidential office said a series of Russian strikes in the past 24 hours have also killed civilians in eastern Ukraine: four in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another four in Donetsk province.
In other developments, Zelenskyy called on Ukrainian lawmakers to speed up legislation needed for the country to join the European Union. His government applied for EU membership after the Russian invasion on February 24. EU leaders made Ukraine a candidate last week, acting with unusual speed and unity.
The process could take years or even decades, but Zelenskyy said in a speech to lawmakers that Ukraine cannot wait.
“We needed 115 days to receive EU candidate status. Our path to full membership should not take decades,” he said. “You may be aware that some of your decisions will not be greeted with applause, but such decisions are necessary for Ukraine to move forward on its way forward, and you must make them.”
In Berlin, Germany’s cabinet on Friday launched the process of ratifying Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership offers in what government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit called “a clear signal” of support. Parliament has yet to ratify the offers, which were announced at a NATO summit this week after Turkey raised its opposition.
And in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin briefed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the conflict in Ukraine. A Kremlin statement said Putin blamed the Zelenskyy administration and Ukraine’s Western supporters for allegedly trying to “escalate the crisis and disrupt efforts to resolve it politically and diplomatically.”
Putin denied that Russian forces targeted a shopping mall where, according to Ukrainian authorities, a missile strike on Monday killed at least 19 people and wounded 62 others. He said Thursday that the target in Kremenchuk, a city in central Ukraine, it was a nearby weapons depot and that the Russian army does not target places occupied by civilians.
Missiles fired from the Caspian Sea landed in the Kyiv region on Sunday as US President Joe Biden and other leaders were meeting in Berlin for a Group of Seven summit.
___
Get in touch
Do you have any questions about the attack on Ukraine? Email [email protected].
- Please include your name, location and contact information if you are willing to speak with a CTV News reporter.
- Your comments may be used in a CTVNews.ca story.