Two women and toddler killed in Russian drone attack on Ukraine

A residential building was heavily damaged after a Russian strike in Odesa (Michael Shtekel/AP)

A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa has killed two women and a toddler while Ukrainian long-range drones targeted Russia’s key Black Sea port for oil exports.

The night-time attack on Odesa heavily damaged an apartment block, killing the women and a two-year-old child, officials said. Rescuers working under floodlights pulled four people from the rubble.

Eleven people were admitted to hospital including a pregnant woman and two children — the youngest less than a year old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine since it invaded its neighbour just over four years ago, killing more than 15,000 people, according to the United Nations.

It has also taken aim at Ukraine’s power grid, and the Russia overnight barrages also hit energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, Mr Zelenskyy said.

More than 300,000 households were without electricity in the northern Chernihiv region after distribution facilities were damaged in attacks, according to the regional power utility.

Over the past week, Russia has launched at Ukraine more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 powerful glide bombs and more than 40 missiles of various types, according to Mr Zelenskyy.

He expressed concern in a weekend interview with The Associated Press that the Iran war is draining stockpiles of weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself, especially American-made Patriot air defence systems that can stop missiles.

He said on Monday that the country’s partners “need to strengthen air defence together so that the interception rate of drones and missiles continues to increase”.

With US-led peace efforts stalled, Mr Zelenskyy added that “Russia has no intention of stopping” its invasion.

A local man stands in front of a residential building which was heavily damaged (Michael Shtekel/AP)

Ukraine has fought back by developing its own long-range drones, which now reach targets 900 miles inside Russia.

Ukraine has used them recently to hammer Russian oil facilities as Moscow looks to boost its exports after the Trump administration gave it a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints. Kyiv officials complain that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 50 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev said that eight people, including two children, were injured in a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on Novorossiisk, one of Russia’s largest Black Sea ports. The attack damaged six apartment buildings and two private houses, he said.

Unconfirmed media reports said the drones targeted the Sheskharis oil terminal at the Black Sea port.

Last week, Ukraine’s drones struck oil facilities in the Gulf of Finland, in north-west Russia.