3 dead, 15 injured as Russia hits Ukraine’s port city Odesa in major drone strike

Ukrainian rescuers at the site of a Russian strike on a residential building in Odesa, Ukraine on Monday.

Photo: State Emergency Service Handout / EPA At least three people were killed on Monday in the latest powerful Russian drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

Fifteen residents, including a pregnant woman and two children, were injured, military governor Oleh Kiper reported on Telegram, after a drone struck a multi-storey residential building.

Those killed included a 30-year-old woman and her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, as well as a 53-year-old woman.

There were fires and significant destruction, Kiper said. “Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative buildings were hit,” said Kiper. “Rescue operations are ongoing; there may still be people under the rubble.” Dog handlers and psychologists were also at the scene, he said. “Law enforcement agencies are documenting the aggressor state’s latest war crimes against the civilian population.” Kiper said 16,000 households are without power as a result of the attacks on energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian air defences reported 141 Russian drone attacks, 114 of which were repelled.

Several districts in Odesa were hit during the night, Serhiy Lysak, head of the city’s military administration, said earlier on Telegram.

The site of a Russian strike on a residential building in Odesa, Ukraine on Monday.

Photo: EPA A high-rise building was struck in one district, causing severe damage between the fifth and third floors, Lysak said, adding that people could still be trapped under the rubble.

Emergency services were at the scene.

The latest attack follows similar strikes the previous night, when residential buildings were damaged and three people were injured, according to Lysak.

Meanwhile in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, some 340,000 people were without power following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, the authorities said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said energy facilities were also attacked in the Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The Russian Defence Ministry said it had attacked energy facilities, as well as factories producing missile components in Ukraine.

According to Zelensky, Russia has deployed more than 2,800 drones, nearly 1,350 glide bombs and more than 40 missiles and cruise missiles against Ukraine within a week.

In the Russian city of Novorossiysk, eight people were injured after Ukrainian drone attacks,

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