Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
- Deadly strike on Odessa -
Missile strikes kill 21 people and wound dozens in Ukraine's flashpoint Odessa region on the Black Sea, Sergiy Bratchuk, Odessa deputy chief of district, says.
The strikes come a day after Russian troops abandoned positions on the strategic Snake Island off the coast of Odessa.
Early Friday the missiles hit a nine-storey apartment building and a recreation centre in Serhiivka about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Odessa.
Two children were among the dead and six others among the injured, officials say.
Germany condemns the attack as "inhuman and cynical."
- Snake Island decision 'changes situation': Zelensky -
Russia's decision to abandon Snake Island "changes the situation in the Black Sea considerably", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says.
"It does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet guarantee that the enemy will not return. But it already considerably limits the actions of the occupiers," he says Thursday in his daily address.
A strategic target, Snake Island sits aside shipping lanes near Odessa port. Russia had attempted to install missile and air defence batteries while under fire from drones.
Britain's Ministry of Defence says in an intelligence update Russia has highly likely withdrawn "owing to the isolation of the garrison and its increasing vulnerability to Ukrainian strikes, rather than as a 'gesture of good will', as it has claimed."
The Russian defence ministry on Thursday described the retreat as "a gesture of goodwill" meant to demonstrate that Moscow will not interfere with UN efforts to organise protected grain exports from Ukraine.
- Lysychansk pounded -
The city of Lysychansk in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region continues to come under sustained bombardment, Ukrainian officials say.
Capturing the city would allow the Russians to push deeper in the industrial Donbas, which has become the focus of their offensive since failing to capture Kyiv after their February 24 invasion.
Four people also died and three were wounded in shelling in Izium and Chuguiv, two districts of the northeastern Kharkiv region in the last 24 hours, Oleg Synegubov, Kharkiv chief of district, says on Telegram.
- Zelensky hails new EU chapter -
Zelensky hails a "new" chapter of "history" with the European Union, after the bloc recently granted Ukraine "candidate status".
"We're not close. Now we are together," he tells Ukraine's parliament.
He was speaking after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told lawmakers in a video address that EU membership is "within reach" but urged them to press forward with anti-corruption reforms.
Ukraine applied for EU membership just five days after Russia's February 24 invasion and the bloc accepted its candidacy on June 23, in a strong signal of support. But membership is expected to take years.
"We made a journey of 115 days to candidate status and our journey to membership shouldn't take decades. We should make it down this road quickly," Zelensky however says.
- Battle of the borshch -
The UN's cultural agency inscribes the culture of cooking borshch soup in Ukraine on its list of endangered cultural heritage.
UNESCO says Russia's war against Ukraine has had a "negative impact on this tradition", of Ukrainian borshch cooking. Ukraine considers it as a national dish although it is also widely consumed in Russia and elsewhere.
"Victory in the borshch war is ours," Ukraine's Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says on Telegram, adding that Ukraine "will win both in the war of borshch and in this war," referring to Russia's invasion.
Russia denounces the UNESCO decision as an example of "modern Kyiv nationalism", saying everything is "subject to Ukrainisation."
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© Agence France-Presse
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