Four die in Odesa, St Petersburg hit in drone exchanges

Four people have died after debris from a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, officials have said.

A three-month-old baby was among the dead.

Regional governor Oleh Kiper said a further eight people were injured. He added that the Shahed drone was shot down by Ukrainian air defences, and that the falling debris hit the apartment building.

Ukraine’s armed forces reported that the Odesa region was attacked by eight drones, of which seven were shot down by air defences.

Across the country more widely, air defences shot down 14 of 17 drones launched against Ukraine, officials said.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported on Saturday morning that more than 20 settlements in the eastern Ukrainian province had sustained Russian artillery and mortar attacks. He said that there were no casualties.

In the partly occupied Kherson region, Russian artillery shelling killed a 53-year-old man on Saturday morning, the Kherson regional prosecutor’s office said.

Meanwhile, in Russia, a drone crashed into an apartment building in St Petersburg, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

Six people received medical help after the explosion rocked the building, the agency said.

The Mash news site said the apartment building was hit by a Ukrainian drone.

The site published videos appearing to show the moment the apartment building was struck, showing a strong flash of light engulfing one side of the building and fragments of debris flying into the air.

St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said two buildings were damaged and residents had been evacuated after what he called an “incident” with no casualties.

Russian media outlets reported that the incident could have been caused by a downed Ukrainian drone, which was heading towards a nearby fuel depot.

with Reuters