Ukraine says Russian missiles kill 21 near Odessa
Missiles slammed into a Ukrainian apartment building and a recreation centre early Friday, killing 21 people and wounding dozens in the Odessa region, in attacks swiftly condemned by Germany.
At least one child was killed, Ukrainian officials said, blaming the strikes on Russia a day after Moscow abandoned positions on a strategic island in a major setback to the Kremlin's invasion.
The missiles struck the two buildings in the town of Sergiyvka about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flashpoint in the now more than four-month-old war.
"The death toll in Odessa blast rose to 21," Sergiy Bratchuk, Odessa deputy chief of district, told Ukrainian television. A 12-year-old boy was among the dead, he added.
Ukraine's emergency services ministry said 16 people were killed at the block of flats and five others, including a child, at the recreation centre.
The strikes were launched by aircraft that flew in from the Black Sea, Bratchuk said.
"The worst-case scenario played out and two strategic aircraft came to the Odessa region," he said in a television interview, adding they had fired "very heavy and very powerful" missiles.
Russia made no immediate comment on the strikes.
