Free Republic

Five people were killed and dozens injured in a missile strike on Ukraine’s third city, Odesa, with an ornate seafront building locally known as the ‘Harry Potter Castle’ burnt out. Ukraine’s military stated an Iskander-M ballistic missile “with a cluster warhead” fell on Odesa, the south-eastern coastal city which is now one of Ukraine’s main ports after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014. According to state media five people were killed in the strike, and 32 were injured, including a young child and a pregnant woman. Among the buildings damaged was a campus of the Odessa Law Academy, a private school...

Ukrainian troops have made a tactical retreat from three more villages as Russian forces press forward across the eastern front line and take advantage of Kyiv’s exhausted military, which is desperately awaiting the arrival of new U.S. assistance. Ukraine’s commander in chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in a Telegram post Sunday that the “situation at the front has worsened” and described some of the toughest fighting west of Avdiivka, the city that fell to Russian forces in February. In that direction, Ukrainian troops withdrew from the villages of Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka. “Trying to seize the strategic initiative and...