At least 20 killed in Russian missile attack on Ukraine's Odesa

ODESA, Ukraine: A Russian missile attack hit civilian infrastructure in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa on Friday (Mar 15), killing at least 20 people and wounding at least 70 in Moscow's deadliest attack in weeks, Ukrainian officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia would receive a "fair response" from Ukrainian forces for what he said was a "vile" strike on a city that has been attacked by Russian drones or missiles almost every day this month.

Two Iskander-M missiles fired from the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula damaged civilian infrastructure and gas and electricity supply lines in the southern city, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on national television.

Some residents were facing gas and electricity supply cuts as a result of strikes, he added.

"The explosion was very strong, especially the second onev... This is a very powerful missile that flies from the occupied Crimea in a few minutes," Kiper said.

A medic and rescuer were killed by a second missile after rushing to the scene to treat people hurt in the initial strike. Ten people had suffered serious injuries, Kiper added.

"Our Defence Forces will certainly do everything to ensure that the Russian killers feel our fair response," Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Residents were rushing to donate blood, creating queues at medical centres. Saturday was declared a local day of mourning.

A three-storey recreational facility was destroyed in the attack as well as at least 10 private houses, the southern military command said. Bodies were laid out in foil protective blankets, while dozens of rescuers battled to put out fires and continued clearing the rubble.

Odesa, one of Ukraine's biggest ports, has long been a target of Russian attacks, especially after Moscow quit a U.N.-brokered deal that had allowed safe passage for Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea.

"The Russian terror in Odesa is a sign of the weakness of the enemy, which is fighting against Ukrainian civilians at a time when it cannot guarantee the safety of people on its own territory," Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.

Moscow denies targeting civilians in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine which it launched in February 2022, although many have been killed in frequent Russian air strikes across the country.

Ukraine has developed and used long-range drones to try to strike back at Russia, stepping up attacks on a string of oil refineries this week in the run-up to Russia's Mar 15-17 presidential election.

Ukraine attacked a small refinery in Russia's Kaluga region with drones early on Friday in an operation that was conducted by the GUR military spy agency, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Moscow-installed officials in the Russian-held city of Donetsk  said a "barbaric" Ukrainian attack on a residential area had killed three children.

"Three children died. A girl born in 2007, a girl born in 2021, and a boy born in 2014," Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, wrote on Telegram.

Russia also said Ukraine launched drone and artillery attacks on areas closer to the countries' shared border. 

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said in a post on Telegram: "The town of Grayvoron came under Ukrainian army shelling."

"There is a dead man. He is a member of our territorial self-defence unit," he said.

Gladkov later added another man had been killed and two more injured by shrapnel in shelling of Belgorod city.

The uptick in attacks on Russia's border regions come after its forces last month captured the city of Avdiivka, just a few kilometres north of Donetsk.

It said pushing Ukrainian forces back would help protect residents of areas under its control from shelling.

The head of Ukraine's army said Friday that Russia had launched a wave of attacks to try to advance further in the area.

"The enemy has concentrated its main efforts and has been trying to break through ... for several days in a row," Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a statement after visiting front lines around Avdiivka.