At least 21 people died on Thursday night (30; Friday morning local time) after a missile hit a nine-story residential building in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa. One of them was a 12 year old boy.
Ukrainian officials blamed Russia for the attack and said the missile was fired from a “strategic aircraft flying over the Black Sea”. According to officials, 41 people were rescued from the building where 152 lived.
“All nine floors of a section [do prédio atingido] were completely destroyed. Rescue teams provided medical assistance to seven wounded, including three children,” said Odessa regional administration spokesman Sergei Bratchuk.
Walls and windows of a neighboring 14-story building were also damaged by the shock wave. Nearby holiday camps were hit.
Through its spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin told reporters that the Russian Armed Forces do not attack civilians.
Earlier, Moscow announced that it had abandoned the strategic island of Cobra, a desolate but strategically important location, which it conquered on the first day of the war and then used to control the northwest of the Black Sea, where it blocked Odesa and other ports.
Russia’s Defense Ministry called the withdrawal a “gesture of goodwill” and said Kiev could now organize the export of more than 20 million tonnes of grain that are dammed up in Odessa.
In an evening video speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed what he described as a strategic victory on Cobra Island. “It still doesn’t guarantee security. It still doesn’t guarantee the enemy won’t come back,” he said. “But this significantly limits the actions of the occupiers. Step by step, we will push them back from our sea, our land and our sky.”
The attack comes just four days after Russia hit a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.
