Russia kills 19 with missiles near Odesa after abandoning Snake Island
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Loading... - Alina Wallner
- 01 Jul 2022
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Russia flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday in missile attacks near Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa that authorities say killed at least 19 people, hours after Russian troops abandoned a nearby outpost at Snake Island.
Neighbours in the resort village of Serhiivka helped workers comb through the rubble of the nine-storey apartment block, a section of which had been completely destroyed at 1:00 a.m. Walls and windows of a neighbouring, 14-storey apartment block had also been damaged by the blast wave.
"We came here to the site, assessed the situation together with emergency workers and locals, and together helped those who survived. And those who unfortunately died. We helped to carry them away,” said Oleksandr Abramov, who lives nearby and had rushed to the scene when he heard the blast.
Ukrainian officials said at least 16 people had been killed at the apartment block, and another three, including one child, by missiles that hit nearby holiday camps. Forty-one people had been rescued from the apartment building, where 152 lived.
The regional governor said the Soviet-era missiles had been fired from the direction of the Black Sea.
The Kremlin denied targeting civilians: "I would like to remind you of the president's words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The attack came just four days after Russia struck a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine killing at least 19 people.
Kyiv says Moscow has dramatically escalated its long-range attacks hitting civilian targets far from the front line in recent days, which Ukraine describes as a war crime. Russia says it has been aiming at military sites.
Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what Ukraine says is an unprovoked war of aggression. Russia calls the invasion a "special operation" to root out nationalists.
On Thursday, Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a desolate but strategically important outcrop that it seized on the war's first day and had used to control the northwestern Black Sea, where it has blockaded Odesa and other ports.
In his nightly video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed what he described as a strategic victory at Snake Island. Read More...
