AGENCIES

Russian strikes on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa killed three people, including a two-year-old child, and cut power to thousands of residents in the early hours of yesterday, officials said.

Moscow has been launching drones and missiles at Ukraine almost nightly throughout its four-year invasion -- the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

The attack left a gaping hole in a residential building that was set ablaze in the attack, according to AFP reporters on the scene and emergency workers.

“Tragically, three people have been reported killed in this attack, including a child -– just two years old. My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media, adding 16 people had been wounded.

Meanwhile, at least eight people were injured, including two children, during Ukrainian drone attacks on the Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, with a number of residential houses sustaining damage, Russia said yesterday.

Russia did not say if the port of Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest exporting outlet on the Black Sea, was struck, reports Reuters.

Ukraine has significantly intensified attacks on Russia’s energy facilities, including the largest oil exporting hubs both on the Baltic and Black seas, seeking to reduce Moscow’s revenues from the sales of oil, the lifeblood of its economy. The area of the port of Novorossiysk is also a location for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s terminal.