At least 19 people, including one child, have died in overnight Russian missile strikes on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, Ukrainian officials say.
The state emergency service, DSNS, says nearly all of the victims were in a nine-storey building hit by one missile in the village of Serhiyivka.
At least two persons, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed in a separate strike on a holiday resort in the village.
According to reports, Russia has fired dozens of missiles on Ukrainian cities in the past few days, and Footage showing firefighters searching for survivors in the wreckage of the nine-storey building was seen.
Reports say 38 people, including six children, were injured in the Russian strikes.
Maryna Martynenko, a DSNS spokeswoman in the Odesa region, told Ukrainian TV that the building’s external wall was damaged, and a nearby shop was set ablaze after the strike. Firefighters later put out the fire and 60 rescuers were currently working at the site.
As many as 150 people are believed to have lived in the building.
Ukrainian officials said three missiles were launched from Russian warplanes over the Black Sea.
Ukraine had hoped that the Russian withdrawal on Thursday from the strategically important Snake Island would ease the threat to Ukraine’s biggest Black Sea port of Odesa and the wider region.
Russia said it had withdrawn its garrison as a “gesture of goodwill” to prove it was not obstructing grain exports from Odesa and other Ukrainian ports – but Ukraine dismissed that claim, saying Moscow continued to shell its grain stores.
Bbc/Adebukola Aluko
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