Hours after the removal of Russian soldiers from the nearby Serpent island, Russia fired missiles near Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odessa on Friday, hitting an apartment and resort and killing at least 19 people, Ukrainian officials said.

Part of a nine-story building was completely destroyed by a missile at 1:00 am. The walls and windows of a neighboring 14-storey building were also damaged by the blast wave. Neighborhood residents are helping rescuers dig up the wreckage.

“We came here to the scene, evaluated the situation together with the rescuers and residents, and together we helped the survivors. And unfortunately we helped transport the deceased,” said Oleksandr Abramov, a resident of the region. and when he heard the explosion, he rushed to the scene.

At least 16 people were killed in the apartment in Serhiivka, and three people, including a child, were killed in the attacks on a nearby resort, Ukrainian officials said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin refused to attack civilians: “I would like to remind you of the President’s words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, thousands of civilians have been killed in what Ukraine describes as a war of aggression without reason. Russia describes the invasion as a “special operation” to root out what it calls dangerous nationalists.

The day before, Russia withdrew its troops from Snake Island, a strategically important ledge it had conquered on the first day of the war and used to control the northwestern Black Sea, from which it had closed Odessa and other ports.

In his evening video speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed what he described as a strategic victory.

“It still doesn’t guarantee security. It still doesn’t guarantee that the enemy won’t come back,” he said. However, this significantly limits the actions of the invaders. “Step by step we will push them back from our sea, from our land and from our sky,” he said.

In eastern Ukraine, where Russia is conducting its main ground offensive, Ukrainian forces were holding out in the city of Lysychansk, although officials said it was under heavy artillery attack.

In Kiev, Ukrainian lawmakers gave a standing ovation as the European Union flag was carried across the hall to stand next to Ukraine’s own flag, a symbol of Ukraine’s official EU candidacy status granted last week.

The attack on Odessa using long-range missiles comes after days when Russia stepped up such attacks across Ukraine away from the front lines, including an attack on a shopping mall that killed at least 19 people on Monday.

Moscow says it attacked military targets. Kyiv describes the attacks as war crimes. Russia may be trying to hit military targets, but it is killing civilians by firing old, faulty missiles at populated areas, a Ukrainian general said on Thursday.