The attack hit an apartment block, killing 16 people, according to Ukraine’s state emergency services.
Another four people, including a child, were killed when a rocket hit a community center, and a third rocket fell into fields. At least 38 people were injured, responders said.
“We don’t expect to find anyone alive, but there is a chance,” First Deputy Interior Minister Yevgeny Yenin said on Friday, speaking from the scene of the attacks.
Photos from the scene showed the apartment building torn apart and debris strewn on the ground.
For several weeks, fighting has been going on in the Odesa region, which borders the strategically important Black Sea.
But some Ukrainian officials are cautiously optimistic that the return of Snake Island, a Ukrainian outpost in the Black Sea, could mean a reduction in shelling of Odessa.
“It is now known why the enemy captured (Snake) Island. They filled the territory with means of destruction and fired from them,” State Border Service spokesman Andriy Demchenko told a briefing on Friday. “We hope now that shelling on the territory of Ukraine will decrease.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied on Friday that Russia was attacking civilian areas in Ukraine and repeated the frequent claim that it was focusing its airstrikes on buildings containing ammunition or training troops. But as with previous such claims following Russian attacks, he failed to provide any evidence that this was the case.
Russia has made some slow but significant gains in eastern Ukraine after redirecting its invasion there. An official in the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic said on Friday that Russian troops had “completely captured” an oil refinery in the bustling city of Lisichansk, eastern Ukraine, although Ukraine acknowledged only “partial” Russian success.
The Russian barrage against Lisichansk is relentless, according to Sergey Khaidai, head of the military administration of the Luhansk region.
“People dream of at least half an hour of silence, but the occupiers do not stop firing with all available weapons,” Heyday said on Thursday.
CNN’s Anna Chernova, Vasco Cotovio and Alexandra Ohman contributed reporting.
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