The Ukrainian army demanded a barrage from its artillery and rockets forced the Russians to flee in two small speedboats. The exact number of retreating troops has not been disclosed.
Zelenskyy said that while the withdrawal does not guarantee the security of the Black Sea region, it would “significantly limit” Russian activities there.
“Step by step we will push (Russia) out of our sea, our land, our sky,” he said in his overnight speech.
Ukraine’s presidential office said a series of Russian attacks in the past 24 hours have also killed civilians in eastern Ukraine — four in the northeastern region of Kharkiv and another four in Donetsk province.
Russian bombings killed large numbers of civilians earlier in the war, including at a hospital and a theater in the port city of Mariupol. Mass casualties seemed to become less frequent as Moscow focused on conquering the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
However, a rocket attack on Monday on a shopping center in Kremenchuk, a city in central Ukraine, killed at least 19 people and injured another 62, authorities said Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday that Russian troops had attacked the mall, saying his country is not making any civilian facilities.
