Olodymyr Zelensky condemned missile attacks in the Odesa region as “targeted Russian terrorism”.
Russian missile strikes on Friday morning killed at least 21 people – including a 12-year-old boy – near the Ukrainian port.
Video of the attack before dawn shows the charred ruins of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, about 50 km from Odessa.
The Ukrainian president’s office said three Kh-22 missiles fired by warplanes hit an apartment building and a campsite while condemning Russia for the attacks in its nightly speech.
He said: “In the Odesa region, the dismantling of rubble is underway after the Russian missile attack on Serhiivka.
“Three missiles hit an ordinary residential building, a nine-storey building in which no one hid any weapons, military equipment or ammunition, as Russian propagandists and officials always say of such strikes.
“It was a simple house, about 160 people. It was inhabited by ordinary people, civilians. The leisure center was also destroyed by this strike – an absolutely typical object for the sea area.
“I emphasize: this is a deliberate, deliberate Russian terror, not a few mistakes or an accidental missile attack.
“Four people from one family died … The murdered boy, 12 years old, whose name was Dmytro … There are currently 21 people on the list of the dead, and about 40 were injured. The numbers have changed every day, unfortunately the death toll is increasing. “
He added that he was grateful to the US and “personally for Biden” for the new support package for Ukraine announced today, which includes “very powerful NASAMS systems”.
Large numbers of civilians died earlier in the war in Russian airstrikes and shelling, including at a hospital, a theater used as a bomb shelter and a train station.
Until this week, it appears that mass casualties involving residents have become less frequent as Moscow has concentrated on conquering the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Odessa is Ukraine’s largest port and the headquarters of its navy.