Ukraine updates: Kyiv says Russian strike on Odesa kills 20

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Russia would receive a "fair response" after the death toll from a "vile" twin missile strike on the Black Sea port city of Odesa rose to at least 20, with at least 75 more people injured.

After a first missile struck homes in the port city, a second missile several minutes later targeted first responders who arrived at the scene, officials said.

At least one paramedic and an emergency service worker are reportedly among the dead, houses and emergency equipment have been damaged and some residents were left without gas and electricity.

Images released from the scene showed bodies covered with blankets and pools of blood smeared on the pavement. 

"Our Defense Forces will certainly do everything to ensure that the Russian killers feel our fair response," Zelenskyy said in an evening address posted on the Telegram messaging app.

The tactic of firing a second missile at the same location, aiming to hit rescuers, is known in military terms as a double tap. Such
strikes often hit civilians.

"Two missiles, and the second one when rescuers and doctors arrived at the site of the strike," Zelensky said in a statement online. "Rescue and relief operations are ongoing in Odesa after the Russian missile attack. A very vile strike by these scum."

Russia has yet to comment on the strikes. 

Regional Governor Oleh Kiper announced that a day of mourning in Odesa would be held on Saturday, the second such observance in less than two weeks.

On March 2, a Russian drone struck a multi-story building in the city, killing 12 people, including five children.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that his forces will respond to a series of recent Ukrainian aerial strikes on the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk – which have also seen minor incursions by pro-Kyiv Russian sabotage groups.

"These strikes by the enemy do not and will not go unpunished," Putin said, stating that the attacks were "an attempt to interfere with the presidential election."

Putin's comments were aired on state-run television on the first day of voting in the election in which no opposition candidates have been allowed to stand.

The three-day vote is also being held in the four partially occupied Ukrainian regions, which Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine has called on the international community not to recognize votes cast in these regions.

The European Commission on Friday announced €500 million (roughly $545 million) in funding awards for European companies to increase their ammunition production, as part of a scheme designed to plug shortfalls in Ukraine and European stockpiles. 

"Today, the Commission allocated the €500 million foreseen under the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP)," the Commission said in a statement. 

"This will allow the European defense industry to ramp up its ammunition production capacity to 2 million shells per year by the end of 2025," it said. 

The funding awards ranged from €47 million to €2.1 million for projects coordinated by companies including Rheinmetall, Nammo, Chemring Nobel, Hellenic Defence Systems, Eurenco and others.

"The selected projects cover five areas: explosives, shells, missiles, and testing and reconditioning certification," the Commission said. It said that thanks to measures already taken, 155 mm artillery shell production capacity hit 1 million per year in January of 2024.

Simultaneously, the EU's executive branch announced a new €310 million fund aiming to encourage common procurement projects among member states, and €1.1 billion that's meant to boost EU defense research and development projects.

The Nobel Prize-winning Russian human rights NGO Memorial says its recently jailed co-founder Oleg Orlov, who is 70 years old, was offered the chance to accept recruitment for the war in Ukraine in order to leave detention. 

Orlov was sentenced to more than two years in jail last month. 

Memorial said Orlov was transferred between detention centers on March 11, and "almost immediately he was offered to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation," the Russian government's sanctioned term for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

"The same contract is offered to all newly arrived detainees," Memorial said. "Orlov, of course, wrote: 'I do not agree.'" 

The veteran rights advocate was convicted on the basis of a column written for the French online publication Mediapart; he was accused of discrediting the Russian army in it. 

Created in the late 1980s, Memorial established itself as a key pillar of Russian society by preserving the memory of victims of communist repression and campaigning against rights violations. 

Russian authorities formally disbanded Memorial in 2021, as it intensified pressure on civil society and independent media. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

UN investigators have found fresh evidence of widespread abuses committed by Russia in Ukraine.

The high-level Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the rights situation in Ukraine since the Russian invasion said Moscow was still committing war crimes and serious rights violations, including "systematic" torture and rape.

"The evidence shows that Russian authorities have committed violation of international human rights and international humanitarian law and corresponding war crimes," COI chief Erik Mose told reporters.

The COI also warned of the continued use of explosive weapons in civilian areas. It noted "a pattern of disregard by Russian armed forces for possible harm to civilians."

Mose said further investigations are required to determine if some of the identified incidents qualify as crimes against humanity.

The report was compiled after speaking to over 800 people during 16 separate visits to Ukraine, the investigators said.

They noted "widespread and systematic" torture by Russian authorities both in Ukraine and Russia. They also described Moscow's treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war as "horrific."

"It [the report] also details incidents of torture with a sexualized dimension and threats of rape against male prisoners of war," the UN said. It added that investigators found "additional evidence" for the unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children to areas under Russian control.

A Russian national was detained and is facing treason charges for using drones to disrupt air defenses near military sites, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.

Moscow accused the man of launching drones on behalf of Ukraine and charged him with high treason.

"He assembled and launched unmanned aerial vehicles to create decoys in close proximity to Russian Defence Ministry facilities," the FSB said.

The man faces a potential sentence of life in prison.

According to local media, the man worked for the Freedom of Russia Legion, a group of pro-Kyiv Russian volunteers.

The group claimed to have briefly taken control of territory within Russia following a series of guerrilla-style assaults on border regions this week.

Russia and Ukraine's overnight strikes continued and killed five people, authorities from both sides said on Friday.

According to Ukrainian officials, a Russian drone attack overnight killed two people in the city of Vinnytsia.

"Russian troops attacked the Vinnytsia region with drones, there are dead and wounded ...As a result of the enemy attack, a 52-year-old man was killed and his 53-year-old wife died in hospital," Ukrainian police said in a statement on Telegram.

Kyiv's air force also said they intercepted and destroyed 27 Iranian-made Russian drones across seven regions, including the capital.

Meanwhile, a Russian official said Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk killed three children overnight on Thursday.

Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, said in a post on Telegram that a "barbaric" attack on a residential house killed two girls — aged 17 and 3 — and a 10-year-old boy.

German ChancellorOlaf Scholz will welcome French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin on Friday.

The meeting will be closely followed as it comes amid increased tensions between the two EU powers over how to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russian forces.

The leaders will be joined by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, marking the first meeting of the so-called Weimar Triangle, since Tusk became prime minister of Poland again in December.

The Weimar Triangle format, considered an important forum for coordination on European issues, saw its first ministerial meeting of the year in February.

Tensions spilled out into the open after Macron said in late February that while there was no consensus to currently send ground troops to Ukraine and that "nothing should be ruled out."

Scholz shot back saying, "There will be no ground troops from European countries or NATO" in Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also echoed the chancellor's statement earlier this month, "We don't need really... talk about boots on the ground or having more courage or less courage."

The trilateral talks are also set to take place amid the backdrop of stalled US military aid for Ukraine. It falls to Paris, Berlin and Warsaw "to mobilize all of Europe" to provide Ukraine with new aid, Tusk said earlier this week. 

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after meetings in Washington that securing new support for Ukraine could not wait, since the war's outcome would be decided this spring and summer.

"Whatever has to be done, it has to be done quickly," Borrell told reporters when asked about his message for US lawmakers. A foreign aid bill containbillions of dollars in funding for Ukraine has yet to pass Congress.

"It's true for us. We have to speed up. We have to increase our support, to do more and quicker. That's why we are increasing our industrial defense capacities. And it is also true for the US," Borrell said when asked about Europe's efforts to support Ukraine's war effort.

"The next months will be decisive. Many analysts expect a major Russian offensive this summer, and Ukraine cannot wait until the result of the next US elections," he added.

rm/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP)