In the early hours of Saturday, Russia launched missiles and drones against sites all over Ukraine, killing three civilians in the Black Sea city of Odesa and damaging a military airfield in the Poltava region, according to Kyiv authorities.
The attacks were the most recent in a string of nocturnal strikes that Russia has stepped up as Kyiv prepares to launch a significant counteroffensive. According to officials, a 29-year-old was also killed in the attacks in the northeast Kharkiv region.
The Air Force said the attacks involved eight ground-launched missiles and 35 strike drones. Air defence units managed to down 20 incoming drones and two cruise missiles, it said.
“As a result of the air fight, debris from one of the drones fell onto a high-rise apartment, causing a fire,” the southern military command’s spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said of the attack on Odesa.
Firefighters battled overnight to put out the fire in the high-rise block in a residential area of the city, footage released by the military showed.
The morning light revealed a gaping crater in the ground several metres wide next to the damaged building and a children’s playground, a Reuters photographer said.
Humeniuk said the fire had been rapidly put out but three civilians died. At least 27 other people, including three children, were hurt, the emergency services said.
Russia also fired drones and ballistic and cruise missiles at the Poltava region, inflicting “some damage of infrastructure and equipment” at the Myrhorod military airfield, the regional governor said.
Ten drones attacked two areas of the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and also backs onto the front line, wounding a 39-year-old man and killing one other person, governor Oleh Synehubov.
Ukraine also shot down two drones over the Dnipropetrovsk region where no damage was reported, its governor Serhiy Lysak said.
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