Russian attacks kill 4 as Ukraine drones target oil infrastructure

Audio By Carbonatix

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa killed two women and a toddler, authorities said Monday, while Ukrainian long-range drones targeted Russia’s key Black Sea port for oil exports.

The nighttime attack on Odesa heavily damaged an apartment block, killing the women and a 2-year-old child, officials said. Rescuers working under floodlights pulled four people from the rubble.

Eleven people were hospitalized, 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 neighbor just over four years ago, killing more than 15,000 people, according to the United Nations.

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 Zelenskyy.

In the southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed an elderly woman and three other women, 86, 79 and 44, were hospitalized, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration. The injured women sustained shrapnel wounds, concussion, blast injuries and head trauma, he said.

Seven people were injured by Russian drones and shelling in the southern city of Nikopol, leaving a 62-year-old in critical condition as the strikes damaged a multistory building and a pharmacy.

Drones also hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, injuring three people, according to regional military administration head Oleh Sinehubov.

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

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

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

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

With U.S.-led peace efforts stalled, Zelenskyy added: “Russia has no intention of stopping” its invasion.

Ukraine has fought back by developing its own long-range drones, which now reach targets some 1,500 kilometers (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.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian drones struck the Novorossiysk oil terminal, one of Russia’s largest Black Sea ports, overnight. The attack damaged a pipeline, loading and unloading berths, and set fire to four tanks holding petroleum products.

The strike damaged assets belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium run by U.S. and Kazakhstani companies, it said.

Eight people, including two children, were injured in the Novorossiysk attack that damaged six apartment buildings and two private houses, according to Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

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

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 50 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Ukraine’s armed forces claimed they hit a Russian Black Sea frigate, the Admiral Makarov, and a drilling rig.

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine