Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa regional administration, said on Ukrainian state television that a rescue operation continues to free people buried under the rubble after a section of the building collapsed. Another missile hit a resort facility, Bratchuk said, wounding several people. Russia has denied targeting civilians in the attack.
"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 said. Zelenskyy's chief of staff accused Russia of waging a war on civilians. In his nightly video address Friday, Zelenskyy called the strikes "conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike."
Zelenskyy also said 12 missiles also hit Mykolaiv. Friday's missile attack in Odesa came hours after Russia said it had pulled its forces from Ukraine's Snake Island on Thursday. The strategic island had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance since Moscow's invasion four months ago. Russia had used the Black Sea island near Odesa as a staging ground after seizing it in the early stages of the war, launching attacks on Ukraine from it and monitoring shipments from Ukrainian ports. Ukraine confirmed Russian forces had pulled out after Ukrainian forces hit the island with missile and artillery strikes overnight, leaving the remaining Russian forces to escape in two speedboats. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it had left the small island "as a symbol of goodwill" after completing its mission there. A senior U.S. official said the United States does "not believe there is any credence to what Russia is saying, that this is a gesture of goodwill." The official said the retreat was more about Ukraine's efforts to defend the island and Kyiv's use of weapons like harpoon missiles.
"The Ukrainians made it very hard for the Russians to sustain their operations there, made them very vulnerable to Ukrainian strikes," the official said. In other developments, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Ukraine's parliament that EU membership was "within reach" but urged them to press forward with anti-corruption reforms.
"You have created an impressive anti-corruption machine," she told the lawmakers by video link Friday. Von der Leyen stressed that Brussels and the EU member states were firmly behind Ukraine in both its battle with the ongoing Russian invasion and the quest to be "reunited with our European family."
For his part Zelenskyy said Ukraine and the European Union were starting a new chapter of their history after Brussels formally accepted Ukraine's candidacy to join the 27-nation bloc.
"We made a journey of 115 days to candidate status and our journey to membership shouldn't take decades. We should make it down this road quickly," Zelenskyy said. At the NATO meeting in Madrid, Western leaders, including Biden, proclaimed their continued military and humanitarian support for Ukraine. Norway announced $1 billion in aid to Ukraine over two years, as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store visited the country. The fund is for "humanitarian aid, reconstruction of the country, weapons and operational support to the (Ukrainian) authorities," the Norwegian government said in a statement Friday.
"We stand together with the Ukrainian people," Store said in the statement.
"We help support the Ukrainians' struggle for freedom. They are fighting for their country, but also for our democratic values."
(AS/VOA)
