Russian strikes kill three in Odesa, hit Poltava air base

By Tom Balmforth and Iryna Nazarchuk

KYIV/ODESA, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russia fired missiles and drones at targets throughout Ukraine within the early hours of Saturday, killing three civilians within the Black Sea metropolis of Odesa and placing a navy air subject within the central Poltava area, Kyiv authorities mentioned.

The assaults, during which a 29-year-old was additionally killed within the northeast Kharkiv area in response to officers, had been the newest in a spate of in a single day strikes that Russia has intensified as Kyiv units its sights on a serious counter-offensive.

The Air Drive mentioned the assaults concerned eight ground-launched missiles and 35 strike drones. Air defence items managed to down 20 drones and two cruise missiles, it mentioned.

“On account of the air battle, particles from one of many drones fell onto a high-rise condominium, inflicting a fireplace,” the southern navy command’s spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk mentioned of the assault on Odesa.

Firefighters battled in a single day to place out the fireplace within the 10-storey block in a residential space of the town, footage launched by the navy confirmed.

The morning gentle revealed a gaping crater within the floor a number of metres broad subsequent to the broken constructing and a kids’s playground, a Reuters photographer mentioned.

Three individuals had been killed together with a pair who lived on the eighth flooring of the constructing and a person who had been outdoors on the time of the assault, authorities mentioned.

At the very least 27 different individuals, together with three kids, had been damage, the emergency companies mentioned.

The primary drone strike got here round midnight and was adopted by three extra. Air raid sirens blared repeatedly by way of the evening.

Russia additionally fired drones and ballistic and cruise missiles on the Poltava area, inflicting “some harm of infrastructure and gear” on the Myrhorod navy airfield, the regional governor mentioned.

Ten drones attacked two areas of the Kharkiv area, which borders Russia and in addition backs onto the entrance line, wounding a 39-year-old man and killing one different individual, governor Oleh Synehubov.

Ukraine additionally shot down two drones over the Dnipropetrovsk area the place no harm was reported, its governor Serhiy Lysak mentioned.