KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone attack before dawn on Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa wounded 14 people, including two children, authorities said Monday, in the latest barrage of civilian areas that have been a hallmark of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Moscow-installed Gov. Vladimir Saldo said Monday. A man and a woman in their 70s died in the village of Dnipriany, he said.
In Odesa, drones hit residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, said Serhii Lysak, the head of the city’s administration. Russia has repeatedly targeted Odesa, a key Black Sea port for Ukraine, since Moscow launched the war more than four years ago on Feb. 24, 2022.
Five of the wounded, most of them with shrapnel wounds, were hospitalized, according to Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia has fired approximately 1,900 attack drones, nearly 1,400 powerful guided aerial bombs and around 60 missiles of various types at Ukraine over the past week.
Ukraine’s wartime development of cutting-edge military technology means that it’s intercepting more than 90% of the drones that Russia launches, Zelensky said in an X post. However, Ukraine needs more American-made Patriot air defense missiles, which are able to shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has recently been helping Middle Eastern and Gulf region countries, which are countering attacks on their territory by Iranian drones, with know-how during the Iran war.
Norway is the latest European country to enter into a joint drone manufacturing agreement with Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Monday.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his government plans a “drone armada” with Ukraine’s help, to defend both itself and Europe.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, on a visit to Warsaw, said that Ukraine has evolved from being a recipient of foreign military aid to a country that can offer state of the art military solutions.
“We are able to destroy tanks, destroy expensive systems and drones, it is our reality,” she said, according to the Polish press agency PAP. “A number of the systems that we’re using are produced in Ukraine. I think we have made a big leap here.”
Zelensky noted a recent raft of good news for Ukraine: NATO partners, excluding the United States, have contributed to a financial arrangement to buy American weapons, the European Union has approved a $106-billion loan to Ukraine, and the EU intends to place more sanctions on Moscow.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been assailing oil terminals and refineries deep inside Russia with long-range drones and missiles, aiming to disrupt Moscow’s economy.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday it has seen geolocated evidence that Ukrainian forces conducted at least 10 strikes against Russian oil and gas infrastructure in the past two weeks.
Arhirova writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Claudia Ciobanu contributed to this report from Warsaw.
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