KYIV, Ukraine -- A Russian ballistic missile attack blasted homes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Friday, followed by a second missile that targeted first responders who arrived at the scene, officials said. At least 16 people were killed.
The dead included a paramedic and an emergency service worker. At least 53 other people were wounded by the Iskander-M missiles, officials said.
At least 10 houses in Odesa and some emergency service equipment were damaged in the strike, which started a blaze, according to emergency officials and regional Gov. Oleh Kiper.
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.
Kiper announced that a day of mourning in Odesa would be held today -- the second such observance in less than two weeks.
On March 2, a Russian drone struck a multistory building, killing 12 people, including five children.
Moscow has repeatedly claimed that its forces do not target civilian areas, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.
Since last summer, Russia has intensified its attacks on Odesa, a southern port city with a population of around 1 million.
The attacks have primarily targeted port infrastructure, aiming to disrupt the export of goods after Ukraine managed to restore maritime navigation with a series of successful operations in the Black Sea.
Moscow officials have also claimed they are aiming at facilities where Ukrainian sea drones are stored for attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
The Odesa region's ports were key to last year's international agreement that let Ukraine and Russia ship their grain to the rest of the world.
Odesa residents largely speak Russian, and the city's past is intertwined with some of Russia's most revered figures, including Catherine the Great, author Leo Tolstoy and poet Anna Akhmatova.
Its Orthodox cathedral belongs to Moscow's patriarchate and -- at least until the Kremlin illegally annexed the nearby Crimean Peninsula in 2014 -- its beaches were beloved by Russian tourists.
Meanwhile, in the Russian border region of Belgorod, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a member of the regional territorial defense forces was killed and two people were injured in Ukrainian shelling Friday.
Overnight in Ukraine, two people were also killed and three wounded in the central Vinnytsia region after Russia struck a building with a drone, according to regional Gov. Serhii Borzov.
The Ukrainian air force said it shot down all 27 Shahed drones that Russia launched over the Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi and Kyiv regions.
PRISONER CONDITIONS
U.N.-backed human rights experts said Friday they have gathered new evidence of "horrific" torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war by their Russian jailers, saying such practices could amount to war crimes.
"New evidence strengthens the commission's previous findings that torture used by Russian authorities in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation has been widespread and systematic," the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in its latest report, citing "horrific treatment" of POWs at several sites in Russia.
Last July, The Associated Press reported that thousands of Ukrainian civilians were being held in Russian prisons and subjected to systematic torture and slave labor. The AP report al so cited a Russian government document from January last year outlining Moscow's plans to create dozens of new prison colonies and detention centers in occupied Ukraine through 2026.
Commission chair Erik Mose said the torture takes many forms including beating, verbal abuse, electric shocks, and limited access to food and water.
"The whole treatment of the prisoners of war and the picture drawn up emerging from the way they were dealt with, how they were treated over long periods -- months -- enables us to use the word 'horrific,'" he told reporters on the sidelines of a Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.
Russian forces regularly showed little regard for possible harm to civilians in their military operations, the report said, adding that incidents of rape and sexual violence against women in the war in Ukraine amounted to torture.
"Our determination is that both rape and sexual violence are war crimes," commission member Vrinda Grover said. "With the focus this time on prisoners of war, we have also found that there was a sexualized dimension of torture of male prisoners -- Ukrainian prisoners of war."
Information for this article was contributed by Hanna Arhirova and Jamey Keaten of The Associated Press.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, an emergency serviceman takes a moment after a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
The hand of a victim lays in a pool of blood after a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. A first missile struck houses and when emergency crews arrived at the scene a second missile landed, authorities said. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)
A Red Cross worker looks down at his phone next to covered dead bodies of people killed in a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services help their comrade injured during a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services help their comrade injured during a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, an emergency serviceman sits shocked after a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services firefighters extinguish a fire at the scene of a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services work at the scene of a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. A first missile struck houses and when emergency crews arrived at the scene a second missile landed, authorities said. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP Photo)
A damaged fire engine attends the scene of a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday March 15, 2024. A Russian missile strike on Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday killed at least 14 people and injured 46 others, local officials said. A first missile struck houses and when emergency crews arrived at the scene a second missile landed, authorities said. (AP Photo/Victor Sajenko)