Ukrainian forces say they have pushed Russian forces from Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea outpost off the southern coast. Russia portrayed the pullout from the island 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, writes The Guardian.

A Russian missile struck a multi-story apartment building in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa early on Friday, killing at least 10 people, a local official said.

“The number of dead as a result of a strike on a multi-story apartment building has now risen to 10”, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration said on his Telegram channel.

The situation in the city of Lysychansk is “extremely difficult” as Russian forces’ continuous shelling makes it impossible for civilians to evacuate, officials say.

“There is a lot of shelling and from multiple directions. The Russian army is approaching from different directions towards Lysychansk”, Luhansk’s regional governor, Serhiy Haidai said, adding that Russian forces remained on the city outskirts, where there was currently no street fighting.