- Russia describes departure from Snake Island as a “gesture of goodwill”
- Most precarious situation in Donbas for Ukraine
- A Russian missile has hit an apartment building in the port of Odessa
Kyiv, July 1 (Reuters) – Russian missiles hit a nine-story apartment building and resort near the Ukrainian port of Odessa on the Black Sea early Friday, killing at least 17 people. people and dozens injured, Ukrainian authorities said.
The missile hit the building in the city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi around 1 am (22.00 GMT on Thursday), said the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergencies. It also caused a fire in the building of an annex store.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odessa regional administration, told Ukrainian state television that a rescue operation was underway, as some people remained buried under the rubble after part of the building collapsed. sunk.
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Another missile struck a tourist facility, Bratchuk said, injuring several people.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm details of the incident.
It came after Russia said on Thursday it had decided to withdraw from Snake Island as a “gesture of goodwill” to show that Moscow was not obstructing UN attempts to open a humanitarian corridor that would allow the shipment of grain from Ukraine.
Ukraine said it had expelled Russian forces from the outcrop after an artillery and missile assault, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised the strategic victory.
“It still doesn’t guarantee security. It still doesn’t guarantee the enemy won’t return,” he said in his nightly video address. “But this significantly limits the actions of the occupants. Step by step, we will move them away from our sea, our land and our sky.”
Instead, however, Ukrainian forces were desperately waiting in the city of Lysychansk.
Russian artillery bombarded from different directions as the Russian army approached from various sides, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television.
“The superiority in the firepower of the occupants is still very evident,” Zelenskiy said. “They just brought all their reserves to hit us.”
Russian forces have been trying to encircle Lysychansk since they captured Sievierodonetsk, on the opposite side of the Siverskyi Donets River, last week after weeks of heavy fighting.
In Sievierodonetsk, residents have come out of their basements and are sweeping the ruins of their ruined city as they seek to rebuild it.
“Almost all of the city’s infrastructure is destroyed. We have been living without gas, electricity and water since May,” Sergei Oleinik, a 65-year-old resident, told Reuters. “We’re glad this is over, and maybe maybe reconstruction will begin and we’ll get back to a more or less normal life.”
SUPPORT IN UKRAINE
Despite ceding ground and suffering heavy losses in the east of the Donbass in recent weeks, Ukraine hopes to inflict enough damage to deplete Russia’s advancing army and counterattack in the south of the region.
Ukraine’s Western allies have been sending weapons and the Kyiv government received another boost with the United States saying they would provide $ 800 million more in weapons and military aid. Read more
U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking after a NATO summit in Madrid, said Washington and its allies were united to face Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t know how it will end, but it will not end with Russia defeating Ukraine,” Biden told a news conference. “We will support Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
SMOKE AND FIRE
Ukrainian forces in the “southern” district of the joint command of the Ukrainian armed forces killed 35 Russian soldiers and put out of action two tanks and four armored vehicles, according to a Ukrainian military statement on Facebook on Friday.
“The Ukrainian armed forces not only maintain lines of defense, but also participate in successful operations aimed at freeing the occupied cities in the Kherson region from invaders,” Kriviy Rih regional governor Oleksandr Vilkul told Telegram, and he added that Ukrainian troops had recaptured the city of Potyomkin. .
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the battlefield’s claims.
Snake Island was recaptured by Ukraine after weeks in which the momentum of the four-month conflict appeared to be shifting in favor of Russia.
The Ukrainian army posted a picture on Facebook of what appeared to be the island, seen from the air, with several columns of black smoke rising above it.
“The enemy hastily evacuated the remains of the garrison with two speedboats and probably left the island. Currently, the snake island is consumed by fire, the explosions are exploding,” he said.
Ukrainian Brigadier General Oleksii Hromov said that Ukrainian forces were not yet occupying the island, but that they will.
The rocky outcrop dominates the sea routes to Odessa, Ukraine’s main port on the Black Sea, where Russia is blocking food loads from one of the world’s leading grain suppliers.
Lifting the blockade has been a primary goal of the West. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russia of deliberately causing world hunger as “blackmail.”
Moscow denies blocking ports and attributes food shortages to Western sanctions that it says limit its own exports.
Speaking in Moscow on Thursday, Indonesian leader Joko Widodo offered to be a diplomatic bridge between Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart and said he hoped global food and fertilizer supply lines could be repaired.
“I am very grateful to President Putin who said before that he will offer a security guarantee for food and fertilizer supplies from both Russia and Ukraine. This is good news,” he said. Read more
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Reuters office reports; Written by Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast; Edited by Stephen Coates
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