A Russian ballistic missile attack has killed at least 20 people and injured more than 75 in the Black Sea city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials have said.
The attack on civilian infrastructure was Russia’s deadliest in weeks after Moscow recently increased its strikes on the port city, launching drones or missiles almost every day this month.
Two Russian Iskander-M missiles fired from the Moscow-occupied peninsula of Crimea struck a residential area in Odesa on Friday, the regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said on national television.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said: “Russia continues to terrorise Odesa … Local residents, medical and emergency workers are among the victims and injured.”
Kiper said a medic and a rescue worker were killed by a second missile after rushing to the scene to treat people hurt in the initial strike. Ten people had sustained serious injuries, he added. Residents were queueing to donate blood at medical centres and Saturday was declared a day of mourning.
A three-storey recreational facility was destroyed and at least 10 houses, a low-pressure gas pipeline and rescue vehicles were damaged in the attack, the southern military command said.
Rescuers worked to put out fires on the pipeline and in a private house over a total area of about 120 sq metres, and continued to clear rubble.
Maia Sandu, the president of neighbouring Moldova, wrote on X: “Ukraine needs urgent help to defend itself and to defend peace in Europe.”
Odesa, one of Ukraine’s biggest ports, has long been a target of Russian attacks, especially after Moscow quit a UN-brokered deal that had allowed safe passage for Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram: “The Russian terror in Odesa is a sign of the weakness of the enemy, which is fighting against Ukrainian civilians at a time when it cannot guarantee the safety of people on its own territory.”
Moscow denies targeting civilians in the full-scale invasion that it launched in February 2022, although many have been killed in frequent Russian airstrikes across the country.
Ukraine has developed and used long-range drones in efforts to strike back, stepping up attacks on a string of oil refineries this week in the run-up to Russia’s presidential election.
Ukrainian forces attacked a small refinery in Russia’s Kaluga region with drones early on Friday in an operation that was conducted by the GUR military spy agency, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.
