Russian missiles strike Odesa area in southern Ukraine, killing at least 21

Russian missile attacks on residential areas killed at least 21 people early Friday near the Ukrainian port of Odesa, authorities said, a day after the withdrawal of Moscow's forces from an island in the Black Sea seemed to ease the threat to the city.

Video of the predawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka about 30 miles southwest of Odesa. The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said three Kh-22 missiles fired by Russian bombers struck an apartment building and a campsite.

Ukrainian authorities interpreted the attack as payback for Russian troops being forced from Snake Island a day earlier, though Moscow portrayed their departure as a “goodwill gesture” to help unblock exports of grain from the country. Russian forces took control of the island in the opening days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odesa, Ukraine's biggest port and the headquarters of its navy.

“The occupiers cannot win on the battlefield, so they resort to vile killing of civilians," said Ivan Bakanov, head of Ukraine’s security service, the SBU. "After the enemy was dislodged from Snake Island, he decided to respond with the cynical shelling of civilian targets.”

Large numbers of civilians died in Russian strikes and shelling earlier in the war, including at a hospital, a theater used as a bomb shelter and a train station. Until this week, mass casualties involving residents appeared to become more infrequent as Moscow concentrated on capturing eastern Ukraine's Donbas region.

But Russian missiles struck the Kyiv region last weekend after weeks of relative calm around the capital, and an airstrike Monday on a shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk killed at least 19 people.

Asked about Friday's strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow’s claim that it wasn’t targeting residential areas during the war, which is now in its fifth month. The Russian military is trying to strike munitions depots, weapon repair factories and troop training facilities, he said.

Ukrainian media said 21 people were killed, including children. Ukraine’s Security Service said another 38 people, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalized with injuries. Most of the victims had been in the apartment building.

Oleh Zhdanov, an independent Ukrainian military analyst, said that the Russian pullback from Snake Island has “colossal psychological significance” for Ukraine.

“Snake Island is key for controlling the Black Sea and could help cover the Russian attack if the Kremlin opted for an amphibious landing operation in Odesa or elsewhere in the region," he said. "Now those plans are pushed back.”

Ukraine’s military said that a barrage of its artillery and missiles forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of withdrawing troops was not disclosed.

The island took on significance early in the war as a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the Russian invasion after Ukrainian troops there reportedly responded with defiance to a demand from a Russian warship to surrender or be bombed.

Zelensky said that although the pullout did not guarantee the Black Sea region’s safety, it would “significantly limit” Russian activities there.

“Step by step, we will push [Russia] out of our sea, our land, our sky,” he said in his nightly address.

In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces kept up their push to encircle the last stronghold of resistance in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the country's Donbas region. Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the region for eight years.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were trying to encircle the city of Lysychansk and fighting for control over an oil refinery on the city’s edge.

“The shelling of the city is very intensive,” Haidai told the Associated Press. “The occupiers are destroying one house after another with heavy artillery and other weapons. Residents of Lysychansk are hiding in basements almost round the clock.”

The offensive has failed so far to cut Ukrainian supply lines, although the main highway leading west was not being used because of constant Russian shelling, the governor said. “The evacuation is impossible,” he added.

But Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday that Russian and Luhansk separatist forces had taken control of the refinery as well as a mine and a gelatin factory in Lysychansk “over the last three days.”

Zelensky's office said a series of Russian strikes in the last 24 hours also killed civilians in eastern Ukraine — four in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another four in Donetsk province.

In other developments, Zelensky asked Ukrainian lawmakers to fast-track the legislation needed for the country to join the European Union. His government applied for EU membership after Russia's Feb. 24 invasion. EU leaders made Ukraine a candidate for membership last week, acting with unusual speed and unity.

The process could take years or even decades, but Zelensky said in a speech to lawmakers that Ukraine can't wait.

“We needed 115 days to receive the status of a EU candidate. Our path to a full-fledged membership mustn’t take decades,” he said. "You may be aware that some of your decisions will not be met with applause, but such decisions are necessary for Ukraine to advance on its path forward, and you must make them.”

In Berlin, Germany’s Cabinet on Friday launched the process of ratifying Sweden's and Finland's NATO membership bids in what government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit called “a clear signal” of support. The parliaments of the alliance's 30 member nations must ratify the bids, which were announced during a NATO summit this week after Turkey lifted its opposition.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.