Armed forces urge residents to seek shelter after twin attacks on southern port city, say Ukrainian officials

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At least 18 people have been killed after two Russian missiles struck a multi-storey apartment building and a recreation centre in the southern port city of Odesa in the early hours of Friday, Ukrainian officials have said.

Ukraine’s armed forces issued an alert urging residents to seek shelter after three explosions and air raid alarms were heard shortly before 1am local time.

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The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said that one of the reasons that Russia was able to invade Ukraine was because of underspending on defence in Europe.

Appearing on Sky News, she said:

I’ve been very clear that the entire free world, the western alliance, does need to focus more on deterrence. We need to focus more on defence. And what we know is prevention is better than cure.

The lesson that Putin learned from underspending on defence was that he could invade a sovereign nation, and we simply can’t let our guard down again, we can’t allow that to happen again.

I would say that we need a full range of capabilities to deal with the threats that we face now. Whether those are cyber threats, whether those are land-based threats, naval threats, and we have the balance right. But of course we need to continue to evolve, because we’re seeing, you know, we never expected in our lifetimes to see this kind of war on in Europe.

We’ve seen the systematic rape of women. We’ve seen the attacking of civilians, including at the shopping centre this week. And what we need to make sure is not only are the Ukrainians successful in pushing Russia out of Ukraine, but also that people are held to account for these appalling crimes that have been committed.

I’ve not met Vladimir Putin. I do not know the motivations for carrying out this appalling war. All I know is that we have to make it our absolute priority to stop this war, to push Vladimir Putin and the Russian troops out of Ukraine, otherwise we will live in a much less safe Europe.

Winning back vital Black Sea island could weaken any future Russia coastal land attack

• Russia-Ukraine war – live updates

Ukrainian forces say they have pushed Russian forces from Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea island off the southern coast near the city of Odesa.

Russia portrayed the pullout from Snake Island off the port city of Odesa as a “goodwill gesture.” Ukraine’s military said the Russians fled the island in two speedboats following a barrage of Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes.

This live blog is now closed, we will be returning in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments.

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The Ukrainian authorities of Mariupol have posted a message from the city’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, expressing concern for the fate of the elderly in the city under the occupying forces of Russia. It quotes him saying:

People of respectable age were taken care of in Mariupol. They created conditions for them to meet a decent old age. But the Russian occupiers took it away from them. Instead, they are forced to somehow survive without quality medical care, without medication and care. Most of them are children of World War II, for whom the Russian occupiers repeated what the whole world says “never again.” Staying in the city is dangerous for their health, because they will be the first to suffer from infectious outbreaks.