At least 21 people, including a child, were reported killed near Ukraine’s port of Odesa after Russian missiles hit an apartment building and a holiday campsite.
The attack hit a housing block in the coastal town of Serhiyivka, killing 16 people, officials said Friday. Another five people died when a missile hit a nearby holiday village. At least 40 people were injured.
The attack came just hours after Russian troops were forced from Snake Island, a strategically important island just off Odesa, following heavy fire from Ukrainian forces. The Kremlin described the withdrawal as a “gesture of goodwill.”
“The occupiers cannot win on the battlefield so they resort to vile killing of civilians,” said Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s security service. “After the enemy was dislodged from Snake Island, he decided to respond with the cynical shelling of civilian targets.”
It’s the latest assault in a week that has seen Moscow increase its long-range attacks. On Monday, at least 20 people were killed in a strike that hit the Kremenchuk shopping center, while an airstrike Wednesday on a housing block in Mykolaiv saw eight people die.
