Overnight drone attacks by Russia and Ukraine left casualties and damage in both countries, with a child killed in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk and two people killed in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, officials reported Wednesday.
Novorossiysk Mayor Andrei Kravchenko described a “horrific night” after a Ukrainian drone strike hit the Black Sea port city, killing one child, injuring another child and a woman, and damaging dozens of residential buildings. The attack also damaged the Novorossiysk grain terminal, according to its owner, Demetra Holding. In the wider Krasnodar region, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said eight people were injured. Separately, Russian-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev of Crimea reported that Ukrainian drones damaged several homes on the peninsula. Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed its forces destroyed 502 Ukrainian drones overnight.
In Ukraine, the head of the Kherson regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said a Russian Shahed drone attack killed two people and wounded at least two others, including an elderly woman. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian strike sparked a fire at a shopping mall and cut electricity to about 1,200 consumers, according to regional Governor Ivan Fedorov. Another Russian attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s largest seaport, damaged infrastructure, said Serhiy Lysak, head of the city’s military administration. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had struck a fuel depot in the port of Odesa that it alleged was supplying the Ukrainian army.
The exchange reflects an intensification of strikes on economic and logistical targets. Moscow says it has escalated attacks on Ukrainian food, agriculture and warehouse facilities in response to Kyiv’s campaign against Russian energy, port and logistics hubs. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv had delivered proposals to U.S. negotiators for a plan to end the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukrainian officials, cited by the Financial Times, also said Kyiv had agreed to halt drone strikes on oil tankers using the port of Novorossiysk following a request from U.S. Vice President JD Vance late last month.
Diplomatic efforts have largely stalled since the United States and Israel launched military action against Iran, according to the report. Ukraine continues to call for a ceasefire, while Russia insists any settlement must include Ukraine ceding four regions that Moscow claims and addressing what it calls the conflict’s “root causes.”
The latest wave of attacks underscores the deepening toll on civilian infrastructure and the fragility of any diplomatic opening as both sides escalate targeting of supply lines and economic assets.
