AFP, Kyiv

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday urged the West to deliver more air defence systems as a wave of Russian missile, drone and artillery strikes killed at least eight people.

Five were left dead, including a two-year-old child, after an overnight strike on the southern port city of Odesa while separate shelling attacks on the frontline Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions killed three, Ukrainian officials said.

“Russia continues to hit civilians,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.

“We need more air defences from our partners. We need to strengthen the Ukrainian air shield to add more protection for our people from Russian terror. More air defence systems and more missiles for air defence systems save lives,” he said.

Ukraine is currently on the back foot in the two-year war as a crucial USD60-billion aid package is held up in the United States congress.

In Odesa, “a nine-storey building was destroyed as a result of an attack by Russian terrorists,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Saturday in a post on Telegram.

The attack killed at least five people, including a child, and injured eight, Ukraine’s emergency services said.

The child was two years old, Odesa region Governor Oleg Kiper said on state TV.

Others were still unaccounted for, with almost 100 rescuers searching the rubble on Saturday for survivors or the bodies of more victims.

Footage shared from the scene showed several floors of a residential building collapsed and its facade ripped off.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, a 76-year-old man was killed in a shelling attack shortly after midnight, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.

And shelling in the frontline Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south on Saturday morning killed two more, the provincial heads said.