Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - on Friday near the port of Odesa, Ukraine . At least 21 people were killed in the attacks, which happened...
 |
| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - on Friday near the port of Odesa, Ukraine. At least 21 people were killed in the attacks, which happened just hours after Russian troops left the Black Sea outpost of Snake Island.
Residents of the resort village of Serhiivka helped workers pick through the rubble of the nine-story apartment building, part of which had been destroyed by the early-morning strike.
The blast wave hurt the walls and windows of a 14-story apartment building next door. Holiday camps close by were also hit.
"We came to the site, talked to emergency workers and locals about what was going on, and then helped those who were still alive. And those who were sad to say goodbye. We helped get them out of there, "Oleksandr Abramov, who lives close by and ran to the scene when he heard the explosion, said.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa regional government, said that 21 people, including a 12-year-old boy, had been killed. One of the people who died was a worker at the Children's Rehabilitation Center, which was set up in the resort by Ukraine's neighbour Moldova.
The governor of the area said that the rockets came from the direction of the Black Sea.
The Kremlin said that civilians were not the target.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, said, "I would like to remind you of what the president said, which is that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets."
LONG-RANGE ATTACKS INTENSIFY
In his nightly video address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Russia's attack on the apartments and seaside site "targeted terror" and not an accident or a random missile strike.
The attack on Serhiivka happened soon after Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a strategically important outcrop about 140 km (85 miles) southeast of Odesa that it had taken on the first day of the war.
Valeriy Zaluzhny, the head of Ukraine's General Staff, said that Russia was not living up to its claims that it had left Snake Island as a "gesture of good will." Zaluzhny said on his Telegram channel that two Russian warplanes had taken off from a base in Crimea on Friday evening and bombed targets on the island.
He said the attack was on a video that he posted. Reuters had no way to verify the video or what the Russians did. Russia didn't say anything right away.
This week, Russia hit a busy shopping mall in the middle of Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.
Kyiv says that Moscow has increased its long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline. Russia says that it was trying to hit military sites.
Since Russia moved into Ukraine on Feb. 24, thousands of civilians have been killed. Russia says that the invasion is a "special operation" to get rid of separatists. Ukraine and its Western allies say it is a war of aggression that was started without a reason.
Since March, Russian troops have been in charge of Zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, in the southern part of Ukraine. On Friday, the company in charge of nuclear power in Ukraine said it had reconnected to surveillance systems that had been cut off. Since March, there have been two times when people couldn't talk to each other, and the U.N.'s atomic watchdog wants to check out the plant.
FOOD SUPPLY
Russia used Snake Island to control the northwestern part of the Black Sea and blockade Ukraine, which is one of the largest grain exporters in the world.
Moscow says that Western sanctions that hurt its own exports are to blame for a food crisis, which it says it is not to blame for.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the president of Indonesia. On Friday, he called the prime minister of India and told him that Russia would continue to be a big supplier of grain.
Ukraine has said that Russia has been stealing grain from the lands it has taken over since Russia invaded.
It said that the Zhibek Zholy, a cargo ship with a Russian flag that was carrying Ukrainian grain, had left the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk. According to a Ukrainian official and a document seen by Reuters, Kiev asked Turkey to hold the ship.
Thursday, a Russian-appointed official said that the Zhibek Zholy was the first cargo ship to leave the Berdyansk port after it had been stopped for several months. He did not say what ship it was, though.
The Kremlin has denied stealing grain in the past, and when asked for a comment on Friday, it did not respond.
NO GAS, ELECTRICITY, WATER
Russia is firing more missiles at Ukrainian cities at the same time that its forces are making steady progress on the battlefield in the east. The goal is to get Ukraine to give up the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Since taking the city of Sievierodonetsk last week after some of the worst fighting of the war, Moscow has been close to taking Luhansk.
Ukraine's last stronghold in Luhansk is the city of Lysychansk, which is on the other side of the river Siverskyi Donets. It is very close to being surrounded by Russian artillery fire.
Residents of Sievierodonetsk, which was taken over by Russia, came out of their basements to look through the wreckage of their city.
"Almost every building in the city is destroyed. Since May, we haven't had gas, electricity, or water "Sergei Oleinik, 65, told Reuters.
Zelenskiy said that eastern and southern Ukraine needed more weapons at the same time that the Pentagon said the US was sending two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four more counter-artillery radars, and ammunition as part of its latest arms package.
Zelenskiy said, "We worked very hard to get these ready."
