Four people have been killed in a Russian attack near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, the fourth in five days on the Black Sea coastal region.
A 16-year-old girl, two women and a man were among those killed in the attack on a two-story building housing a mushroom farm where civilians lived and worked, officials said.
Odessa regional chief Oleh Kiper said people were working at the time of the attack: “A ballistic missile was probably aimed at an infrastructure facility, but instead it hit nearby – at this place.”
Russia has not commented on the wave of rocket attacks on the Odessa region.
Kiper zei dat Russische troepen in slechts twee dagen 13 mensen hadden gedood, nadat een graanschip in de haven werd aangevallen op donderdagochtend.
Er zijn al eerder ballistische raketaanvallen op de haven van Odessa uitgevoerd. Maar nog nooit zo vaak, in korte tijd.
Vicepremier Oleksiy Kuleba zei dat Rusland in slechts drie maanden 60 van dergelijke aanvallen had uitgevoerd, waarbij bijna 300 havenfaciliteiten waren beschadigd of vernietigd. Hij zei dat 79 mensen waren gedood of gewond en 22 burgerschepen waren geraakt.
Een negende slachtoffer van de aanval van woensdagavond overleed ‘s nachts in het ziekenhuis. De regionale chef van Odessa vertelde de BBC dat hij geloofde dat Rusland nu burgerschepen aanviel om de Oekraïense economie te schaden en de wereld bang te maken met wat het zou kunnen doen.
Andere Oekraïense havens – in de regio’s Zaporizhzhia, Kherson en Mykolayiv – zijn niet meer in bedrijf, waardoor de faciliteiten in Odessa belangrijker zijn dan ooit voor de Oekraïense export.
“Ze hebben ze [de schepen in Odessa] zo geraakt dat de verzekeringsmaatschappijen en de scheepseigenaren weigeren onze havens binnen te varen, de gevechtszone in, zei Kiper.
Het was onmogelijk voor Oekraïne om alle drie de havens in de regio Odessa te beschermen met zijn huidige luchtverdediging, legde hij uit, aangezien ze zich over ongeveer 80 km (50 mijl) uitstrekten: “Dus de focus ligt vooral op de stad Odessa, waar meer dan een miljoen mensen wonen. De rest van de havens en steden blijven in een moeilijke situatie.”
Ondertussen heeft de procureur-generaal van Oekraïne gezegd dat er strafrechtelijke procedures zijn begonnen naar de dood in Russische gevangenschap van een prominente Oekraïense journalist die het leven onder bezetting op de Krim en Oost-Oekraïne vastlegde.
Viktoriia Roshchyna was briefly detained in the occupied eastern city of Berdyansk in 2022, but she disappeared in the occupied east in August 2023 and Russian authorities only confirmed she was being held a few months ago.
Ukrainian intelligence services said she was included in a prisoner swap and Russian reports said she died on September 19 while being transferred to a detention center in Moscow.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Roshchyna’s death was a heavy blow. “For all of us in Ukraine, the issue of detained and deported people remains incredibly painful. These are adults and children, many citizens who are now being held in prisons and camps in Russia,” he wrote on X.
Zelensky met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday before traveling to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
He is promoting a “victory plan” to end the war, telling a press conference in Berlin that he wants to end the war “by next year, 2025 at the latest,” adding that it is vital that aid to Kiev does not decrease in the coming year.
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni had earlier promised Zelensky that support for Kiev would last “as long as necessary.”
Zelensky denied that he had discussed conditions for a ceasefire. “The key is to strengthen Ukraine’s position and relations with our closest partners,” he stressed.
Russian forces continue to make gains in eastern Ukraine, with authorities in the strategically important hill town of Toretsk saying on Friday that only 40-50% of it remained under Ukrainian control.
Ukrainian forces are outgunned and outnumbered, and are also under pressure in Pokrovsk. The two cities are seen as vital to maintaining the army’s supply lines.
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian military targeted a major oil terminal on the eastern coast of Russian-occupied Crimea.
Satellite images show the offshore facility in Feodosia still burning, five days after the attack. Russian-appointed official Igor Tkachenko said that while the fire had not been extinguished, it was fully under control.
The Ukrainian military said the terminal was the largest in Crimea and helped supply Russian occupation forces.
More than 1,000 residents had to leave their homes because of the strike, which Kiev says is retaliation for Russian attacks that destroyed much of the electricity infrastructure.