#people #killed #strikes #Odessa #Ukraine
Rocket attacks killed 18 people and wounded dozens in Ukraine’s Odessa region on Friday, a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on a strategically important island in a major setback to the Kremlin invasion.
The news came after NATO leaders wrapped up a summit in Madrid where US President Joe Biden announced $800 million in new weapons for Ukraine.
“We will hold on to Ukraine and the entire alliance will hold on to Ukraine as long as it takes to ensure they are not defeated by Russia,” he said.
The rockets were fired early Friday, hitting an apartment building and a recreation center about 80 kilometers south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flashpoint in the conflict.
Ukrainian emergency services initially said 17 people were killed and 30 injured in both attacks. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official of Ukraine’s presidency, later wrote on Telegram that the death toll had risen to 18, including two children.
The attacks in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi were launched by planes from the Black Sea, Odessa military administration spokesman Sergiy Bratchuk said.
“The worst-case scenario played out and two strategic planes came into the Odessa region,” he said in a TV interview, adding they fired “very heavy and very powerful” missiles.
Earlier this week there was global outrage when a Russian attack destroyed a shopping center in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, killing at least 18 civilians. Putin denies that Moscow’s troops are responsible.
– Anti-corruption reforms –
Friday’s attacks came a day after Russian troops abandoned their positions on Snake Island off the coast of Odessa.
The island had become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance in the early days of the war, when the ledge’s defenders told a Russian warship to piss off after it urged them to surrender – an incident that spurred a defiant meme.
It was also a strategic target as it was adjacent to shipping lanes near the port of Odessa. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defense batteries while coming under drone fire.
Ukraine was recently granted “candidate status” by the European Union as it pushes to join the bloc, though membership is likely years away.
On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Ukraine’s parliament that membership was “within reach” but urged them to press ahead with anti-corruption reforms.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, announced that Ukraine has started exporting electricity to the EU via Romania amid growing fears of an energy crisis in Europe over reduced Russian gas supplies.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov likened the rising diplomatic tensions to the Cold War.
“As for the Iron Curtain, it’s basically coming down… The process has started,” he told reporters.
– Snake Island –
However, there was a glimmer of hope when Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he had delivered a message from Zelenskyy to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It came after Widodo visited both Moscow and Kyiv. Neither side disclosed what the note said.
Zelenskyy said Russia’s decision to abandon Snake Island “significantly changes the situation in the Black Sea”.
“It doesn’t guarantee safety. It still does not guarantee that the enemy will not return. But it already severely limits the occupiers’ actions,” he said in his daily address.
The Russian Defense Ministry has described the withdrawal as a “goodwill gesture” to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere in UN efforts to organize protected grain exports from Ukraine.
In peacetime, Ukraine is a major agricultural exporter, but Russia’s invasion has damaged farmland and resulted in Ukrainian ports being confiscated, destroyed or blocked – raising concerns about food shortages, particularly in poor countries.
Western powers have accused Putin of using the trapped crops as a weapon to increase pressure on the international community, and Russia has been accused of stealing grain.
A ship with 7,000 tons of grain left the occupied Ukrainian port of Berdyansk on Thursday, said the regional head appointed by the Russian occupying forces.
– Donbass under fire –
Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Moscow government, said Russia’s Black Sea ships “ensure the safety” of the voyage, adding that the port had been demined.
The conflict in Ukraine dominated this week’s NATO summit in Madrid, as the alliance formally invited Sweden and Finland to join and Biden announced fresh deployments of US troops, ships and planes to Europe.
Russian missiles continue to rain down other parts of Ukraine, and the city of Lysyhansk in the eastern Donbass region is under sustained bombardment.
Capturing the city would allow the Russians to advance deeper into the Donbass, which has become the focus of their offensive since they failed to capture Kyiv after their invasion in February.
Sergiy Gaiday — governor of the Lugansk region, which includes Lysychansk — said the city continued to face heavy shelling.
“Residents of Lysychansk hardly leave their basements and houses,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that fires had broken out in houses and shopping centers.
The Russians have taken control of parts of the city’s oil refinery, he said.
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