A Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa killed two women and a toddler, while Ukrainian long-range drones simultaneously targeted Russia’s key Black Sea oil export hub. Ukrainian officials said the overnight attack on Odesa severely damaged an apartment building, leaving two women and a two-year-old child dead. Rescue teams pulled four survivors from the rubble. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 11 people were hospitalized.
Zelenskyy added that Russian strikes also targeted Ukraine’s power grid, hitting energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Dnipro regions. In the Chernihiv region alone, more than three lakh households were left without electricity after distribution facilities were damaged. Earlier in an interview, Zelenskyy expressed concern that the war with Iran is draining stockpiles of weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself, especially American-made Patriot air defence systems.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its air defenses shot down 50 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ukrainian drone strikes on Novorossiisk, one of Russia’s largest Black Sea ports, injured eight people, including two children, and damaged six apartment buildings along with two private homes.
