The first missile has destroyed a nine-story apartment building /
The kyiv Government denounces that “the invaders cannot win on the battlefield and resort to cowardly murders”
Just the day after its troops had to withdraw from Snake Island, of paramount importance for the defense of the Ukrainian coastline in the Black Sea, Russian aviation wanted to show that it is still within range of Odessa, the main port still under control of the government of Volodymyr Zelensky. On Thursday night, bombers fired three missiles at Odessa and the town of Sergueevka, on the outskirts, with a provisional balance of 21 civilians killed, including two children, and 38 wounded, with five minors also admitted, one of them in a state of serious, according to data provided by the District Attorney’s Office.
One of the rockets partially destroyed a nine-story residential building, while the other two hit two resorts. According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (GSChS), “four children and a pregnant woman were among the injured and eight people, including three small ones, were rescued from under the rubble.”
The Southern Operational Command of the Ukrainian Army reported that “as a result of a night attack with missiles from Tu-22 strategic aircraft flying over the airspace of the Black Sea, three X-22 missiles – the same ones that were used on Monday against the shopping center of Kremenchuk – hit an apartment building and two rest centers in the Belgorod-Dnestrovski district of the Odessa region,” the report said. The head of the Presidency office, Andréi Yermak, also echoed the attack through his Telegram account, assuring that “a terrorist country is killing our people.”
This is the second operation in the Odessa region in less than a day. On Thursday afternoon, the head of the regional military administration, Maxim Marchenko, reported rocket fire in the territory, but, according to him, “without casualties or significant destruction.” On the same day, after another intense bombardment by the Ukrainian forces against the Snake Island, which is several tens of kilometers from Odessa, the Kremlin troops had to leave it. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, presented it as a “goodwill gesture.”
“The invaders cannot win on the battlefield and resort to cowardly killing of civilians. After the enemy was expelled from Snake Island, he decides to bomb homes and rest centers as if they were military bases,” Iván Bakánov, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), told Ukrainian media. In his opinion, “the goal of the Russian Federation is the literal destruction of Ukraine and its citizens.”
Firefighters work to search for survivors /
The spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitri Peskov, for his part, came out yesterday with information about what happened in Odessa, assuring that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation do not intervene against civilian targets.” “I want to remind you once again of the words of the President and Commander-in-Chief of Russia, Vladimir Putin, that the Army during the special military operation does not work on civilian targets and infrastructure,” Peskov told reporters.
“Provocations”
Despite numerous testimonies from international human rights and humanitarian organizations, the Moscow authorities continue to deny that civilians are being targeted. Contrary to this evidence, recognized even by the UN, the Kremlin calls such reports “forgeries and provocations.”
Although the focus of its war effort is in eastern Ukraine, Russia maintains the use of longer-range missiles to attack cities across the country. Meanwhile, the number of victims continues to rise. The authorities of the town of Mikolaiv, in the south of the country, yesterday raised the death toll to eight in a missile attack carried out on Wednesday by Russian troops against a residential building. The State Emergency Service indicated that during the night of Thursday the lifeless body of a man was found under the rubble of a staircase.
The second projectile has leveled a recreation center /
On Wednesday, the mayor, Oleksander Senkevich, stated that the invading army had launched a dozen missiles against the city, although the building was affected by the impact of an X-55 cruise missile.
From President Zelensky’s office, news was also reported of a series of attacks in the last twenty-four hours that also cost civilian lives: four in the northeastern region of Kharkov and another four in the province of Donetsk. The same sources announced an “intensification” of the Kremlin’s offensive operations around the town of Kramatorsk, with an attempt to seize the highway connecting Bajmut and Lisichansk.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army also referred to “unsuccessful” attacks during the last day against Siversk, Bilohorivka and Vovchoyarivka. “The enemy focuses its efforts on encircling the troops in Lisichansk from the south and west to take full control of the Luhansk region,” he added. In this sense, his spokeswoman explained that the invaders have fired artillery against Berestove, Yakovlivka, Vidrodzhena, Mayorsk and Vihledarska, in the surroundings of Bajmut.
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