Odesa hit by missiles as Ukraine claims it has sunk second Russian ship

The Ukrainian port city of Odesa was hit by renewed Russian missile strikes on Saturday, as military authorities in Kyiv claimed one of their drones had sunk a second Russian ship in the Black Sea.

Satellite photos analysed by the Associated Press show the aftermath of an apparent Ukrainian drone strike on Friday on Russian positions on Snake Island, with thick black smoke rising overhead.

Elsewhere, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister said all women, children and elderly people had been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Ukraine had said 50 civilians were evacuated on Friday, but accused Russia of violating a ceasefire intended to allow dozens more still trapped at the plant to leave.

The final evacuees followed about 500 others who were allowed to leave the plant and other parts of the city in recent days.

Washington and European members of the transatlantic Nato alliance have supplied Kyiv with heavy weapons to help it resist a Russian offensive that has resulted in the occupation of parts of eastern and southern Ukraine but failed to take Kyiv.

However, the US and its Nato allies have repeatedly said they will not take part in fighting themselves, in order to avoid becoming parties to the conflict.

Meanwhile, several missiles hit Odesa earlier on Saturday, according to a Ukrainian local government spokesperson, after targets in the surrounding region had been hit by four missiles earlier.

She added that the strike targeted the city of Arcyz and no one was injured.

The World Health Organization told Ukrainians in Kyiv on Saturday that the WHO stood by them in their conflict with Russia, and urged Moscow to stop waging war on its neighbour.

The WHO emergencies director, Mike Ryan, told the same news conference at the government media centre in Kyiv that the WHO had already documented 200 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine, and would pass its findings on to those who could assess whether crimes had been committed.