Russian strikes kill 21 in Ukraine’s Odessa

Russian missile strikes killed 21 people and wounded dozens in Ukraine's Odessa region yesterday, a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on a strategic island in a major setback to the Kremlin's invasion.

Two children were among the dead and six others among the injured, Ukrainian officials said.

The missiles slammed into an apartment building and a recreation centre early yesterday in the town of Serhiivka about 80 kilometres south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flashpoint in the conflict.

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa regional administration, said 21 people had been confirmed killed and 38 people were wounded.

Authorities said earlier 41 people had been rescued from the apartment building where 152 lived. The strikes were launched by aircraft that flew in from the Black Sea, said Bratchuk.

"The worst-case scenario played out and two strategic aircraft came to the Odessa region," he said in a TV interview, adding they had fired "very heavy and very powerful" missiles.

The Kremlin denied targeting civilians. "I would like to remind you of the president's words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The attack came just four days after Russia struck a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine killing at least 19 people.

A Ukrainian general said that Russia may be trying to hit military targets but is killing civilians by firing inaccurate, obsolete missiles into populous areas.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian lawmakers gave a standing ovation as the flag of the European Union was carried through the chamber to stand alongside Ukraine's own flag behind the dais, a symbol of Ukraine's formal EU candidate status granted last week.

Zelensky and lawmakers in parliament stood for a minute of silence for those killed in the attacks in Odessa, reports Reuters.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, four people died and three were wounded in shelling in Izium and Chuguiv, two districts of the Kharkiv region of north-eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials also accused Russian forces of shelling relentlessly the city of Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region. Sergiy Gaiday -- governor of the Lugansk region, which includes Lysychansk – said evacuation from Lysychansk was not possible.

"The superiority in fire power of the occupiers is still very much in evidence," Zelensky said. "They have simply brought in all their reserves to hit us."

He hailed a "new" chapter of "history" with the European Union.

"We're not close. Now we are together," he told Ukraine's parliament. "We made a journey of 115 days to candidate status and our journey to membership shouldn't take decades. We should make it down this road quickly," Zelensky said.

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen yesterday told Ukrainian lawmakers that membership was "within reach" but urged them to make anti-corruption reforms.

In the latest sign of Russia's split with Europe, Russia's ambassador in Bulgaria said she would call for her embassy to be shut, along with Bulgaria's embassy in Moscow, following Sofia's refusal to reinstate diplomats it expelled for spying.