Russia strikes Odesa after troops abandon Snake Island

At least 17 people were killed in a strike on an apartment building, after Joe Biden announced $1.17 billion in new weapons for Ukraine.

A satellite shot of Snake Island on June 30. Picture: Planet Labs via AFP

At least 17 people were killed on Friday in a strike on a Ukrainian apartment building, a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on a captured island in a setback to the Kremlin’s invasion.

The news from the Black Sea came after NATO leaders wrapped up their summit in Madrid, with Joe Biden announcing $US800m ($1.1 billion) in new weapons for Ukraine.

“We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance are going to stick with Ukraine, as long as it takes to make sure they are not defeated by Russia,” the US President said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov compared the new diplomatic low to the return of the Cold War, telling reporters: “As far as an Iron Curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending … The process has begun.”

But there may be a possible opening. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who visited Moscow on Thursday after a trip to Kyiv, said he had given Russian President Vladimir Putin a message from their Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Neither side has revealed what was in the note.

Hours after the summit ended, a missile slammed into an apartment building in the southern region of Odesa, completely destroying the nine-storey residential structure. Fourteen were killed and 30 wounded in the strike, the emergency services said on Telegram.

Seven people were rescued from the rubble of the building in the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky district, including three children, they said.

According to the Ukrainian military, the strike originated from aircraft in the Black Sea, and those injured in the residential building included children. A recreation centre had been hit in a separate missile strike, they said.

The early Friday strikes came a day after Russian troops abandoned their positions on Snake Island, off the coast of Odesa.

The island had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in the first days of the war, when the rocky outcrop’s defenders told a Russian warship that called on them to surrender to “go f--k yourself”, an incident that spurred a defiant meme.

It was also a strategic target, sitting aside shipping lanes near the port of Odesa. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defence batteries while under fire from drones.

The development highlights the crucial role the long-range weapons supplied by the West have assumed in Ukraine’s fight for survival. Last week Kyiv said it had used American M-777 towed howitzers situated west of Odesa to bombard Russian positions on Snake Island, which lies about 34km from the coast at its nearest point. They also used M270 multiple launch rocket systems, supplied by Britain, which have a range of 80km. Ukraine has recently received its first tranche of M142 high-mobility artillery rocket systems from the US, which can also strike targets about 80km away. France has sent self-propelled 155mm Caesar artillery units, with a range of 37km, which are also thought to have been directed at Snake Island.

Military commanders said the domestically made Bohdana howitzers also played an important role in liberating the island.

The decision to abandon Snake Island “changes the situation in the Black Sea considerably”, Mr Zelensky said in his daily address overnight on Thursday.

“It does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet guarantee that the enemy will not return. But it already considerably limits the actions of the occupiers.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cited Snake Island as he warned the Russian President that any eventual peace deal would be on Ukraine’s terms.

“We’ve seen what Ukraine can do to drive the Russians back. We’ve seen what they did around Kyiv and Kharkiv, now on Snake Island,” Mr Johnson said.

The Russian defence ministry statement described the retreat as “a gesture of goodwill” meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine. But Ukraine officials claimed it as a win. “They always downplay their defeats this way,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter.

On Thursday, a ship carrying 7000 tonnes of grain sailed from Ukraine’s occupied port of Berdyansk, said the regional leader appointed by the Russian occupation forces. Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Moscow administration, said Russia’s Black Sea ships “are ensuring the security” of the journey, adding that the port had been de-mined.

AFP