KIEV (Dispatches) – Missile strikes killed at least 18 people and wounded dozens in Ukraine’s Odessa region Friday, a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on a strategic island.
The news came after NATO leaders wrapped up a summit in Madrid, with U.S. President Joe Biden announcing $800 million in new weapons for Ukraine.
“We are going to stick with Ukraine, and all of the alliance are going to stick with Ukraine, as long as it takes to make sure they are not defeated by Russia,” he said.
The missiles were fired early Friday, hitting an apartment building and recreation center about 80 kilometers south of the Black Sea port of Odessa, which has become a strategic flashpoint in the conflict.
Ukrainian emergency services initially said 17 people were killed and 30 wounded in both attacks. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official at the Ukrainian presidency, later wrote on Telegram that the death toll had risen to 18.
The strikes, in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, were launched by aircraft that flew in from the Black Sea, said Odessa military administration spokesman Sergiy 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.
Last week Biden administration officials vowed that the U.S. and its European allies were preparing for a protracted war in Ukraine even at the risk of “global recession and mounting hunger”.
“Biden administration officials had discussed the possibility of a protracted conflict [in Ukraine] with global spillover effects even before February” when U.S. intelligence had suggested Russia was preparing to launch a war in the country, The Washington Post reported on June 18, citing a senior State Department official.
“Our guiding light is that the outcome of Russia being able to achieve its maximalist demands is really bad for the United States, really bad for our partners and allies, and really bad for the global community,” the State Department official noted, as quoted in the report.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in his daily press briefing on Thursday that Russia’s decision to abandon Snake Island “changes the situation in the Black Sea considerably.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also cited Snake Island as he warned the Kremlin that any eventual peace deal would be on Ukraine’s terms.
The Russian defense ministry statement, however, described the withdrawal as “a gesture of goodwill” meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organize protected grain exports from Ukraine.
On Thursday, a ship carrying 7,000 tons of grain sailed from the Russian-controlled Ukrainian port of Berdyansk, according to the regional leader appointed by the Russian forces.
Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Moscow administration, said Russia’s Black Sea ships “are ensuring the security” of the journey, adding that the port had been de-mined.

‘Iron Curtain Descending
Between Russia, West’

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that a new “iron curtain” is descending between Russia and the West, just a day after NATO branded Russia as the U.S.-led bloc’s “most significant and direct threat” to the security of its members.
Since the onset of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, the U.S. and its European allies have not only unleashed a raging flood of advanced weapons into the ex-Soviet country to help its military to fend off Russian forces but also imposed waves of unprecedented sanctions against Moscow, attempting to ultimately make Russia a pariah nation.
In a provocative move on Wednesday, NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance, a move that triggered strong reaction from Russia, which called it “a purely destabilizing factor.”
Furthermore, NATO, in its new 10-year strategic policy published during the bloc’s summit in Madrid on Wednesday, officially declared Russia the “most significant and direct threat” to the security of its members, marking a radical strategic shift spurred by the Russian military offensive against Ukraine. The last such document, published in 2010, NATO had described Russia as a “strategic partner.”