Russian missile attacks on residential areas in a coastal town near the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Friday killed at least 18 people, authorities reported.
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Video of the pre-dawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Odesa. The Ukrainian President's Office said three X-22 missiles fired by Russian bombers struck an apartment building and two campsites.
"A terrorist country is killing our people. In response to defeats on the battlefield, they fight civilians," Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kirill Tymoshenko, said 18 people died, including two children. A spokesman for the Odesa regional government, Serhiy Bratchuk, said on the Telegram messaging app that another 30 had been injured.
Sixteen of the 18 victims died in the apartment building, Ukrainian emergency officials said.
The airstrikes followed the pullout of Russian forces from Snake Island on Thursday, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa, home to Ukraine's biggest port. The island sits along a busy shipping lane.
Russia took control of it in the opening days of the war in the apparent hope of using it as a staging ground for an assault on Odesa. The Kremlin portrayed the departure of Russian troops from Snake Island as a "goodwill gesture" intended to facilitate shipments of grain and other agricultural products to Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world.
Ukraine's military claimed 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. Ukrainian troops there reportedly received a demand from a Russian warship to surrender or be bombed. The answer supposedly came back, "Go f*** yourself."
Zelenskyy 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.
Ukraine's presidential office said a series of Russian strikes in the past 24 hours also killed civilians in eastern Ukraine – four in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another four in Donetsk province.
Russian bombardments killed large numbers of civilians earlier in the war, including at a hospital and a theater in the port city of Mariupol. Mass casualties had appeared to become more infrequent as Moscow concentrated on capturing eastern Ukraine's entire Donbas region.
However, a missile strike Monday on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk, a city in central Ukraine, killed at least 19 people and injured another 62, authorities said Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied that Russian forces targeted the shopping mall, saying that his country doesn't hit civilian facilities. He claimed the target in Kremenchuk was a nearby weapons depot, echoing the remarks of his military officials.
Meanwhile, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told the Ukrainian parliament on Friday that Kyiv had a "very clear European perspective" but the road to EU membership will take time and require hard work.
EU leaders last week granted Ukraine candidate status to join the bloc, formally opening a process that is expected to take years before it becomes a member of the union that now comprises 27 countries.
In a speech by video-link to the Ukrainian assembly, Von der Leyen underlined the progress made by the country in its path towards EU membership while it defends itself against Russia.
"Ukraine now has a very clear European perspective. And Ukraine is a candidate country to join the European Union, something that seemed almost unimaginable just five months ago," she told lawmakers and Zelenskyy.
"There is a long road ahead but Europe will be at your side every step of the way, for as long as it takes, from these dark days of war until the moment you cross the door that leads into our European Union," she said, noting that many crucial reforms were needed as soon as possible. "The next steps are within your reach. But they will require hard work," she added.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine must become an EU member state quickly.
"Our path to membership must not take decades," he said. "We must traverse this path as quickly as possible. This depends on us."
Ukrainian lawmakers clapped in unison as a huge EU flag was brought into the assembly hall by three servicemen from the National Guard dressed in ceremonial uniforms.
Von der Leyen listed among urgent measures Ukraine needed to take: the adoption of a media law, the implementation of new rules that reduce oligarchs' excessive clout and the appointment of top anti-corruption officials. Zelenskyy urged lawmakers to pass all those measures.
In related news, European grid operators are ready to implement immediately a long-term plan to bring the Baltic states, which rely on the Russian grid, into the European Union system in the event Moscow cuts them off, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Concern about depending on Russia for any form of energy has mounted across Europe because of reductions in Russian gas supplies to some countries following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Baltic states have expressed concern because Lithuania has clashed with Russia for blocking goods to Moscow's Kaliningrad enclave.
Thirty years after splitting from the former Soviet Union and 17 years since joining the European Union, the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania depend on Russia to ensure stable power supplies.
The Baltic States have a long-standing plan to become part of the European decentralised network of power grids, known as ENTSO-E, by 2025.
The sources said that could be implemented immediately if necessary, under contingency plans drawn up by ENTSO-E for such an eventuality. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Russian and Continental European systems both operate at a frequency of 50 Hertz, but whereas the Russian system is run from Moscow, the continental European grids are decentralised, meaning each national grid operator is responsible for maintaining the stability of its system.
However, in an emergency, those in the European system can provide help.
Already in March, the EU and Ukraine linked their grids - 2-1/5 years earlier than planned - enabling Ukraine to receive emergency power from Europe if military attacks caused outages.
Ideally, the Baltic States would only disconnect from the Russian grid in 2025, following the completion of investment backed by 1.6 billion euros ($1.68 billion) of EU funding to upgrade their infrastructure.
The sources said, however, the Baltic States would already be able to cope if they have to. The grids would operate in a stable manner but the lack of the infrastructure upgrades could mean higher power prices, one of them said.
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Lithuania last year installed and successfully tested equipment to link up the Baltic power grid with Poland, an ENTSO-E member.
ENTSO-E was not available to comment on Thursday, and the Polish power grid declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Litgrid, which operates the Lithuanian grid, told Reuters last year's test of the Lithuanian-Polish LitPolLink connection upgrade showed that "in an emergency, the Baltic countries will receive help and be able to connect to the networks of continental Europe".
"We coordinate with regional partners and are ready to ensure reliable power supply in all scenarios," the spokesperson said.
Removing the Baltics from the regional grid would also cut off Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, which is wedged between Lithuania, Poland and the Baltic Sea, meaning it would have to run the grid independently.
A test of whether Kaliningrad could do this was planned for Saturday but Russia called it off shortly before it was due.
No-one could immediately be contacted in Russia to comment on the Baltic grid plans.
However, Russia has said it is committed to fulfilling its energy supply contracts.
It says reduced gas deliveries this month via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany were caused by the delayed return of turbine equipment being serviced by Germany's Siemens Energy in Canada.
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