This is yet another tragedy caused by the war in Ukraine.
At least 17 people were killed in strikes on buildings in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine.
A missile fired by a "strategic aircraft" from the Black Sea left "14 dead and 30 injured, including three children", according to the latest report from the Ukrainian emergency services.
Another missile, fired by the same device, hit two other buildings located nearby, killing "three people, including a child", added the rescuers.
Rescue operations, complicated by a fire, are continuing.
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The first strike "hit a nine-story residential building in the Bilgorod-Dniester region", about 40 kilometers southwest of Odessa, according to the Odessa region administration spokesman , Sergei Brachuk.
He attacked Internet users who report on social networks the movements of troops and emergency services.
“A rescue operation is underway, do not write where, who and how!
so as not to endanger the military, he told local television, without specifying the exact location of the strike.
NATO support and a new “iron curtain”
This strike came as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) pledged its unwavering support to Ukraine by closing its summit in Madrid (Spain) on Thursday.
"We will stand by Ukraine and the entire Alliance will stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes to ensure it is not defeated by Russia," Biden said.
“I don't know how or when this will end,” added the American president, saying: “It will not end with a defeat for Ukraine”.
Several member states have announced new military aid.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has committed to an extension of one billion pounds (1.16 billion euros), Joe Biden to an additional 800 million dollars (about 760 million euros).
For his part, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has planned the revision of his country's military programming, stressing that "we must now, entering a period of war, know how to produce certain types of equipment faster, stronger" .
Russia retorted through the voice of its foreign minister.
"The Iron Curtain, in fact, is already coming down," he said, taking up this image born with the Cold War, a period of confrontation without armed conflict between the Soviet bloc and the Western bloc. between the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1990s.
On the front, Ukraine welcomed Thursday the departure of Russian forces from Serpents' Island, which they had taken in the early hours of their offensive, a highly symbolic victory for kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
Russia claimed to withdraw its troops "as a sign of goodwill", its objectives having been "achieved" and to facilitate Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea.
This militarized island is located southwest of Odessa, the largest Ukrainian port where millions of tons of grain have been collected.
The version of the Ukrainian military is radically different.
The Russians abandoned the island because they found themselves "unable to withstand the fire of our artillery, missiles and airstrikes".