At least 19 people were killed in strikes on buildings in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, according to kyiv, an attack deemed “inhuman and cynical” by Berlin.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, two missiles were fired by a “strategic aircraft” from the Black Sea, hitting buildings, according to the Ukrainian emergency services.
Still provisional, “the toll is 19 dead and 38 injured, including six children,” said Serguiï Krouk, head of the National Emergency Service of Ukraine.
The first strike “hit a nine-storey residential building in the Bilgorod-Dniester region”, about 80 km south of Odessa, according to Odessa region administration spokesman Sergii Brachuk .
In the Kremlin, the spokesman Dmitry Peskov, questioned on the subject, assured that “the armed forces of Russia do not operate on civilian targets” in Ukraine.
In Berlin, the government condemned the attack. “The Russian side, again talking about collateral damage, is inhumane and cynical,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.
Unwavering support from NATO
The strike came after NATO pledged its unwavering support to Ukraine on Thursday at a summit in Madrid.
“The entire Alliance will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes to ensure it is not defeated by Russia,” US President Joe Biden said. “It will not end with a defeat for Ukraine”.
Several NATO member states have announced new military aid to Ukraine: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged an extension of one billion pounds (1.16 billion euros), Joe Biden on $800 million more.
Moscow retorted through the voice of its Foreign Minister: “The iron curtain, in fact, it is already falling,” said Sergei Lavrov, using this expression born with the Cold War and fallen into disuse. after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
He was reacting to the strategic roadmap just adopted by the Atlantic Alliance, which now designates Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to the security” of NATO members.
The Russians leave Serpents’ Island
On the front, Ukraine welcomed the departure of Russian forces from Serpents’ Island, which they had taken in the early hours of their offensive, a highly symbolic victory for kyiv.
Moscow claimed to withdraw its troops “as a sign of goodwill”, its objectives having been “achieved”, and to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea.
This militarized islet is located southwest of Odessa, the largest Ukrainian port where millions of tons of grain have been collected, and facing the mouth of the Danube.
The version of the Ukrainian military is radically different: the Russians abandoned Serpents’ Island because they found themselves “unable to withstand the fire of our artillery, our missiles and our air strikes”.
“Serpents Island is a strategic point and this considerably changes the situation in the Black Sea”, estimated President Voldymyr Zelensky.
On the other hand, he admitted that the situation remained “extremely difficult” in Lyssytchansk, a city in the industrial basin of Donbass, a region in eastern Ukraine where most of the fighting is concentrated.
“The (Russian) forces have arrived at the gates of Lysytchansk. The Ukrainian army is suffering heavy losses,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
“The evacuation of Lysytchansk is not possible at the moment”, because the Russians “are trying to encircle our army from the south and the west” near the city, indicated on Telegram Serguiï Gaïdaï, governor of the region. from Lugansk.
Lyssytchansk is the last major city not yet in Russian hands in the Lugansk region, one of the two provinces of Donbass, which Moscow intends to fully control.
In the Kharkiv region (northeast), Governor Oleg Sinegoubov on Friday reported four dead and three injured in the past 24 hours (three dead and two injured in Izium, one dead and one injured in Chuhouiv).
In Kherson, in the south, Ukrainian helicopters hit “a concentration of enemy troops and military equipment” near Bilozerka, the Ukrainian army said on Friday, reporting “35 dead” among Russian soldiers and enemy armor destroyed.
kyiv exports electricity
On the diplomatic front, European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, addressing the Ukrainian parliament via video on Friday, called on it to speed up its reforms against corruption, as part of its accepted EU candidacy. last week by the leaders of the 27 Member States of the Union.
Praising the reforms already carried out, she judged that “from now on these institutions need means of action and the right people in positions of responsibility”, claiming “that the new head of the public prosecutor’s office specializing in the fight against corruption and the new director of the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau be appointed as soon as possible”.
She also welcomed the adoption of a law aimed at undoing “the excessive influence of the oligarchs on the economy”, which Ukraine must now ensure “implementation in a legally sound manner”.
Finally, Mrs von der Leyen called for the adoption of a “media law, which brings Ukrainian legislation into line with European Union standards and provides the independent media regulatory authority with the necessary means”.
“Now we are together” and it is “a great honor and a great responsibility”, President Zelensky had declared before her before parliament, stressing that “Ukraine is fighting to choose its values, to be in the European family “.
The day before, he had announced that Ukraine had “started to export electricity significantly to EU territory, to Romania”, pointing to “an important step in our rapprochement with the European Union”.
“We are preparing to increase deliveries,” he added, stressing that “Ukrainian electricity can replace a considerable part” of Russian gas consumed by Europeans.
The Ukrainian electricity network had been connected to the European network in mid-March, which should help the country to preserve its functioning despite the war.
“This will provide an additional source of electricity for the EU. And much-needed income for Ukraine. So we are both winners,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Thursday.
On Friday, Unesco placed the culture of Ukrainian borsch, a beetroot soup, on its list of intangible world heritage in danger.
“The existence of this soup in itself is certainly not in danger in itself, but it is the human and living heritage associated with borsch which is in immediate danger” because of the war, according to the Unesco.
“Victory in the borsch war is ours,” Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkatchenko reacted on Telegram.