(Kyiv) At least 18 people were killed in strikes on buildings in the Odessa region, in southern Ukraine, according to Kyiv, when the army has just taken back a strategic island there from the Russians for the control of maritime routes.
Posted at 7:22
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.
The new toll has risen to 18 dead, including two children, and 30 injured, said the number two of the presidential administration Kirilo Tymoshenko on Telegram.
Rescue operations, complicated by a fire, are continuing.
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 .
The spokesperson attacked Internet users who report on social networks the movements of troops and emergency services. “A rescue operation is in progress, do not write where, who and how” so as not to put the soldiers in danger, he said on local television, without specifying the exact place of the strike.
Unwavering support from NATO
The strike came as NATO pledged its unwavering support for Ukraine by closing its summit in Madrid on Thursday.
“We will stand with Ukraine and the entire Alliance will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to ensure it is not defeated by Russia,” US President Joe Biden said. .
“I don’t know how or when it will end,” he added, saying however: “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.
French President Emmanuel Macron has planned the revision of his country’s military programming, stressing that “we must now, entering a period of war, know how to produce certain types of equipment faster, stronger”.
Moscow retorted through the voice of its Foreign Minister: “The Iron Curtain, in fact, is already coming down,” said Sergei Lavrov, taking up this image born with the Cold War and which was quickly fell into disuse after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
He was reacting to the strategic roadmap that the Atlantic Alliance had just adopted, which now designates Russia as being “the most significant and direct threat to the security” of NATO members. And this, while denouncing the attempts of Moscow and Beijing to unite their efforts to “destabilize the international order”.
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”.
“The enemy fled in two speedboats”, leaving “on fire” this islet where “explosions are still heard”, they said again, specifying that they were now going to restore “direct physical control” there. .
“The Russians themselves, during their retreat, blew up ‘their own military equipment’ and lost a helicopter at sea,” the Ukrainian military said.
“Serpents Island is a strategic point and this considerably changes the situation in the Black Sea […]. This still does not guarantee that the enemy will not return. But this already considerably limits the actions of the occupants, ”said President Voldymyr Zelensky in the evening.
On the other hand, the president 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.
Lyssytchansk is the last major city not yet in Russian hands in the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces of Donbass, which Moscow intends to fully control.
In Kherson, in the south, Ukrainian helicopters struck “a concentration of enemy troops and military equipment” near the town of Bilozerka, the Ukrainian army said on Friday.
This attack left “35 dead” among Russian soldiers and destroyed two tanks and several other armored vehicles, according to the same source.
Kyiv exports electricity
On the energy front, Ukraine “has started to export electricity significantly to EU territory, to Romania”, said the Ukrainian President in a video address, and “this is only a first step”.
“An important step in our rapprochement with the European Union was taken” Thursday, said Mr. Zelensky, whose candidacy for the EU was endorsed last week by the Twenty-Seven.
“We are preparing to increase deliveries,” he added, stressing that “Ukrainian electricity can replace a considerable part” of Russian gas consumed by Europeans. “It’s not just a question of export revenues for us, it’s a question of security for the whole of Europe,” he insisted.
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.
Ukraine was synchronized with the Russian power grid until its invasion on February 24 and then operated autonomously.
“From today, Ukraine can export electricity to the EU market,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Thursday. “This will provide an additional source of electricity for the EU. And much-needed income for Ukraine. So we are both winners”.
Friday morning, M.me van der Leyen also called on Ukraine to speed up its anti-corruption reforms, as part of its EU candidacy accepted by the leaders of the 27 member states of the Union.
Praising the reforms already carried out and “an impressive anti-corruption machine”, 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, M.me von der Leyen called for the adoption of a “media law, which brings Ukrainian legislation in line with European Union standards and provides the independent media regulatory authority with the necessary means”.