MISSILE STRIKES KILL AT LEAST 21 NEAR ODESA
A Russian airstrike on residential areas killed at least 21 people early Friday near the Ukrainian port of Odesa, authorities reported, a day after the withdrawal of Moscow’s forces from an island in the Black Sea had seemed to ease the threat to the city.
Video of the attack before daybreak showed the charred ruins of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, about 31 miles from Odesa. The Ukrainian president’s office said warplanes fired three missiles that struck an apartment building and a campsite.
Ukrainian authorities interpreted the attack as payback for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Snake Island a day earlier, though Moscow portrayed their departure as a “goodwill gesture” to help unblock exports of grain.
Russian forces took control of the island in the opening days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest port and the headquarters of its navy.
“The occupiers cannot win on the battlefield, so they resort to vile killing of civilians,” said Ivan Bakanov, head of
Ukraine’s security service, the SBU.
Ukraine’s military reported late Friday on social media that two Russian Su-30 warplanes bombed Snake Island with phosphorus bombs. Black-and-white aerial video showed two blasts hitting the island. The warplanes reportedly struck from the east, from Belbek, on the Russianoccupied Crimean Peninsula. The Russian military did not immediately comment.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy noted that as in Monday’s shopping mall attack in Kremenchuk that killed at least 19 people,
Russian forces on Friday appeared to use anti-ship missiles to hit Serhiivka.
“These missiles, Kh-22, were designed to destroy aircraft carriers and other large warships, and the Russian army used them against an ordinary nine-story building with ordinary civilian people,” he said at a news conference Friday.
Twenty-one people — including an 11-year-old boy, his mother and the 42-year-old coach of a children’s soccer team — were killed and 38 others, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalized, Ukrainian officials reported. Most of the victims were in the apartment building.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Moscow is not targeting residential areas.
More help for Ukraine’s fight was announced as the Pentagon said it will supply the country with $820 million in new military aid, including surface-to-air missile systems and counter-artillery radar to respond to Russia’s heavy reliance on long-range strikes. The U.S. has provided more than $8.8 billion in weapons and training to Ukraine.