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Reuters

Bloomberg

Powerful explosions rocked the Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv early on Saturday, the mayor said, a day after 21 people were killed and dozens were injured when Russian missiles struck an apartment building and recreation centre near the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Air raid sirens sounded across the Mykolayiv region, which borders the vital exporting port of Odesa, before the blasts.
“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!” Mykolayiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
It was not immediately known what caused the explosions. Reuters could not independently verity the report.
Ukraine says Russia hit Snake Island with phosphorus bombs after retreat
Explosions flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday, the latest in a series of what Ukraine says are Russian missile attacks aimed at civilians.
The UK said analysis of CCTV footage suggests Moscow has reverted to Soviet-era missiles “unsuitable for precision strikes” as weapons stockpiles dwindle, with repeated civilian casualties the result.
In his nightly video address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Putin’s strikes as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike”.
Kyiv says Moscow has intensified its long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline. Russia says it has been aiming at military sites.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cited President Vladimir Putin’s statements “that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets”.
A Russian missile earlier this week struck a crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, killing at least 19 people.




Residents in the resort village of Serhiivka near Odesa helped workers pick through the rubble of the nine-storey block of flats, a section of which had been destroyed in Friday’s early-morning fatal strike.
Walls and windows of a neighbouring 14-storey block of flats were also damaged by the blast wave.
“We came here to the site, assessed the situation together with emergency workers and locals, and together helped those who survived. And those who unfortunately died. We helped to carry them away,” said Oleksandr Abramov, who lives nearby and rushed to the scene when he heard the blast.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, said 21 people had been confirmed killed, including a 12-year-old boy. Among the fatalities was an employee of a children’s rehabilitation centre set up by Ukraine’s neighbour Moldova in the resort.
The victims of the attack also included four family members at a coastal campsite that took a hit as well, said Zelensky.
What exactly did Indonesia’s Jokowi achieve in Moscow and Kyiv meetings?
The strike on Serhiivka took place soon after Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a strategically important outcrop about 140km southeast of Odesa that it seized on the war’s first day.
The chief of Ukraine’s General Staff, Valeriy Zaluzhny, accused Russia of failing to abide by its assertions that it had left Snake Island as a “gesture of goodwill”. On his Telegram channel, Zaluzhny said two Russian warplanes had taken off from a base in Crimea and bombed targets on the island on Friday evening.
He posted a video of what he said was the attack. Reuters could not confirm the authenticity of the video or the Russian action depicted. There was no immediate Russian comment.


Russian forces had used Snake Island to control the northwestern Black Sea and impose a blockade on Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters.
Moscow denies it is to blame for a food crisis, which it says is caused by Western sanctions hurting its own exports.
On Thursday Putin met Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, and spoke by phone on Friday to the prime minister of India, promising both major food importers that Russia would remain a big supplier of grain.
Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain from the territories that Russian forces have seized since its invasion.
The Kremlin has denied stealing grain and did not reply to requests for comment on Friday.
Ukraine hails victory over Russia in ‘borscht war’ after Unesco ruling
Russia’s stepped up campaign of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities coincides with its forces grinding out success on the battlefield in the east, with the aim of forcing Ukraine to cede Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Moscow has been on the verge of capturing Luhansk since taking the city of Sievierodonetsk last week after some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
Ukraine’s last bastion in Luhansk is Sievierodonetsk’s sister city, Lysychansk, across the Siverskyi Donets river.
Russian forces are pounding the city and its surroundings in an all-out attempt to seize the last stronghold of resistance in Luhansk, the governor said on Saturday.
In Russian-occupied Sievierodonetsk, residents emerged from basements to sift through the rubble of their city.
“Almost all the city infrastructure is destroyed. We are living without gas, electricity and water since May,” Sergei Oleinik, 65, told Reuters.
More weapons were needed in eastern and southern Ukraine, Zelensky said, as the Pentagon announced the United States was sending two NASAMS surface-to-air missile systems, four additional counter-artillery radars and ammunition as part of its latest arms package.


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Ukraine war

Ukraine war: blasts rock Mykolayiv after Russian missiles kill 21 near Odesa

A local resident collects family photos from under the rubble after Russian shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, this week. Photo: AP

Missile strikes kill 21 in Odesa after Ukraine retakes Snake Island

The aftermath of the missile strike in Odesa’s  Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky district. Photo: State Emergency Services of Ukraine

A satellite image shows smoke rising from Snake Island, off the coast of Ukraine, on June 29, 2022.  Photo: Planet Labs PBC

The aftermath of the missile strike in Odesa’s Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky district. Photo: State Emergency Services of Ukraine

Snake Island, Ukraine, in an image obtained by Reuters on June 30, 2022. Photo: Ukraine Operational Command South

Russia called a ‘terrorist state’, dozens still missing after Ukraine shopping centre attack

Ukraine released this image of what it says is a  Russian missile, a moment before the shopping mall in Kremenchuk was hit. Photo: CCTV via Instagram @zelenskiy_official

Ukraine released this image of an explosion at the shopping mall in Kremenchuk. Photo: CCTV via Instagram @zelenskiy_official

A woman who was wounded by the Russian attack at a shopping centre. Photo: AP

The aftermath of the missile strike on the shopping centre. Photo: Ukrainian State Emergency Service Press Service

Ukraine war: our troops have ‘almost left’, says Sievierodonetsk mayor

Ukrainian soldiers patrolling an area of Sievierodonetsk last week. Photo: Reuters

Smoke and flames rise after a military strike on a compound of Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant last week. Photo: Reuters 

Ukraine accuses Russia of war crimes as mass graves of ‘executed’ civilians found in Bucha

A mass grave in Bucha, near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Photo: AFP via Getty Images/TNS

People wait for medicine handouts in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. Photo: AP 

Video shows 2 Russian warships escaping as Ukrainian missiles blast docked ship

A video circulating on social media shows large plumes of smoke and flames emanating from a ship docked at Berdyansk, Ukraine, as two other ships appear to sail away. Photo: Twitter

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‘There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!’ Mykolayiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on social media
Kyiv says Moscow has intensified long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from frontline; Russia says it has been aiming at military sites


Kyiv says Moscow has intensified long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline, but Russia says it has been aiming at military sites.
