Pre-dawn Russian drone attack on Odesa wounds 14
Officials say 14 people, including two children, were injured in a Russian drone strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, the latest bombardment of civilian areas that has marked a large-scale occupation of Moscow now in its fifth year.
Serhii Lysak, the city’s chief executive, said drones hit residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure before dawn on Monday.
Russia has repeatedly targeted Odessa, an important Black Sea port for Ukraine.
Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration, said five of the injured, most of whom had shrapnel wounds, were hospitalized.
Meanwhile, two people were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Moscow-based governor Vladimir Saldo said on Monday.
He said a man and a woman in their 70s died in the village of Dnipriany.
Russia fired about 1,900 attack aircraft, about 1,400 powerful guided aerial bombs and about 60 different types of missiles at Ukraine last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday.
In a post on channel X, Zelenskiy claimed that Ukraine’s wartime development of cutting-edge military technology meant it intercepted more than 90 percent of the drones launched by Russia.
But Ukraine needs more American-made Patriot air defense missiles that can shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has been assisting countries in the Middle East and Gulf region with technical know-how as they countered attacks on their territory by Iranian drones during the recent Iran war.
Additionally, Norway is the last European country to sign a joint drone production agreement with Kiev, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said on Monday.
Zelenskyy recently noted a number of good news for Ukraine: NATO partners other than the United States have contributed to financial regulation for the purchase of American weapons, the European Union has approved a 90 billion euro ($147 billion) loan to Ukraine, and the EU plans to impose more sanctions on Moscow.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is attacking oil terminals and refineries deep within Russia with long-range drones and missiles in an attempt to disrupt Moscow’s economy.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday that it had seen geolocated evidence that Ukrainian forces had launched at least 10 attacks on Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure in the past two weeks.
