KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian ballistic missile assault blasted properties within the southern Ukrainian metropolis of Odesa on Friday, adopted by a second missile that focused first responders who arrived on the scene, officers mentioned. At the least 16 individuals have been killed.
The assault occurred as Russians started voting in a presidential election that’s all however sure to increase Vladimir Putin’s rule by one other six years after he crushed dissent, and because the battle in Ukraine stretches into its third yr.
The lifeless included a paramedic and an emergency service employee. At the least 53 different individuals have been wounded by the Iskander-M missiles, officers mentioned.
At the least 10 homes in Odesa and a few emergency service tools have been broken within the strike, which began a blaze, in line with emergency officers and regional Gov. Oleh Kiper.
The tactic of firing a second missile on the similar location, aiming to hit rescuers, is thought in army phrases as a double faucet. Such strikes typically hit civilians.
Kiper introduced {that a} day of mourning in Odesa can be held on Saturday — the second such observance in lower than two weeks.
On March 2, a Russian drone struck a multistory constructing, killing 12 individuals, together with 5 kids.
Moscow has repeatedly claimed that its forces don’t goal civilian areas, regardless of substantial proof on the contrary.
Since final summer season, Russia has intensified its assaults on Odesa, a southern port metropolis with a inhabitants of round 1 million.
The assaults have primarily focused port infrastructure, aiming to disrupt the export of products after Ukraine managed to revive maritime navigation with a sequence of profitable operations within the Black Sea.
Moscow officers have additionally claimed they’re aiming at amenities the place Ukrainian sea drones are saved for assaults on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The Odesa area’s ports have been key to final yr’s worldwide settlement that permit Ukraine and Russia ship their grain to the remainder of the world.
Odesa residents largely communicate Russian, and town’s previous is intertwined with a few of Russia’s most revered figures, together with Catherine the Nice, creator Leo Tolstoy and poet Anna Akhmatova.
Its Orthodox cathedral belongs to Moscow’s patriarchate and — at the least till the Kremlin illegally annexed the close by Crimean Peninsula in 2014 — its seashores have been beloved by Russian vacationers.
In the meantime, within the Russian border area of Belgorod, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned a member of the regional territorial protection forces was killed and two individuals have been injured in Ukrainian shelling Friday.
In a single day in Ukraine, two individuals have been additionally killed and three wounded within the central Vinnytsia area after Russia struck a constructing with a drone, in line with regional Gov. Serhii Borzov.
The Ukrainian air power mentioned it shot down all 27 Shahed drones that Russia launched over the Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi and Kyiv areas.
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Comply with AP’s protection of the battle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine