The Kremlin denied accusations that Russian missiles had bombed an apartment building near the port of Odessa early on Friday morning.
“I would like to remind you of the words of President Vladimir Putin that the Russian armed forces do not deal with civilian targets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a telephone interview with reporters.
According to the Ukrainian version, the Russian missile attacks killed at least 19 people.
Video of the pre-dawn attack showed the remains of charred buildings in the small town of Serhivka, 50 km southwest of Odessa.
Ukrainian President Andriy Yermak’s office said three X-22 missiles fired by Russian launchers hit an apartment building and two camps.
For its part, the Ukrainian Security Service said that 19 people were killed, including two children, adding that 38 others, including six children and a pregnant woman, were taken to hospital with injuries.
Russian forces withdrew from Serpent Island on Thursday, in a move that was expected to mitigate a potential threat to nearby Odessa, home to Ukraine’s largest port.
President Volodymyr Zelensky considered that the Russian withdrawal from the island does not guarantee the safety of the Black Sea region, but it will “significantly limit Russian activities there,” according to the Associated Press.
Ukraine partition scheme
Amid the absence of any prospect for a diplomatic solution, a senior Russian official revealed a Western plan to divide Ukraine, which Poland will implement under the auspices of the United States and Britain, while the Director of US Intelligence Avril Haynes talked about 3 war scenarios.
At a conference in Washington, Haynes said, “The American intelligence community sees 3 possible scenarios, which can be focused on in the coming weeks and months. Most likely, the conflict is still grinding in which the Russians are making increasing gains, but there is no breakthrough. Under this scenario, the Russian army will be He had secured Lugansk and a large part of Donetsk by the fall, as well as consolidating his control over southern Ukraine.”
She noted that the second scenario is that Russia could make a breakthrough and refocus on Kyiv or Odessa.
The third scenario is that Ukraine can stabilize the front line and start making smaller gains, most likely in Kherson or elsewhere in the south of the country.
On the other hand, the Director of Russian Foreign Intelligence, Sergey Naryshkin, revealed Thursday that the Polish leadership has begun to develop scenarios for “dismembering Ukraine.”
In statements to the Russian “Novosti” agency, the Russian official explained that Poland is now working on the issue of creating a proxy state in western Ukraine, which will be “under the protection” of the Polish armed forces.
“In the current critical situation in Warsaw, they tend to bypass previous plans by equipping a Polish peacekeeping unit in western Ukraine, and creating a proxy state in the eastern sector under the protection of the Polish armed forces,” Naryshkin said.
He also noted that “a project is being considered for the formation of a buffer zone in the central regions of Ukraine, which, according to the Poles, will allow them to avoid a direct, highly undesirable, confrontation with Russia.”
This is not the first time that Naryshkin has spoken about a Polish role in the conflict. A few days ago, he said, “Poland is vitally defending the regime of Ukrainian President Zelensky,” noting that “Warsaw is working to transfer effective control over the most important functions and state institutions to it.”
He noted that Kyiv deliberately opened for Poles and Americans access to information of national importance, including information about taxpayers and, accordingly, the real financial situation of Ukraine.
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