March 19 (Reuters) – Russian drones struck several apartment buildings in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, triggering fires and injuring at least three people, local officials said early on Thursday.
“There has been damage to two high-rise apartment buildings, another residence in the city’s historic centre as well as private homes,” Serhiy Lysak, head of the city’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
“Fires broke out, but were quickly brought under control.”
Three people were injured, he said, including two being treated in hospital.
Pictures posted on unofficial Telegram channels showed apartments on fire on upper floors of apartment buildings. One site said drone fragments had fallen in the city centre.
Odesa, a focal point for Ukrainian exports, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks throughout the four-year-old war between Moscow and Kyiv.
In the western city of Lviv, near the Polish border, Russian drones attacked the local headquarters of the SBU security service, causing serious damage, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram. Drone fragments had fallen in the city, he said.
And further north in the Volyn region, Russian drones attacked an energy site, the regional governor said, leaving some 30,000 households without power.
In Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, Russian air defence units intercepted 14 Ukrainian drones, according to Mikhail Razvozhaye, local governor in the port of Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Drone fragments hit the ground, triggering fires, but there were no injuries.
In the southern Russian region of Stavropol, air defence units also repelled a Ukrainian drone attack, the regional governor said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Michael Perry)
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