Russia Continues To Attack Ukraine With Iranian Drones

Debris from a downed drone killed a civilian in the Odesa region after Ukraine's air force said it had destroyed 20 drones that Russia launched overnight.

Air defense systems destroyed nine Iran-made attack drones over Odesa, the region’s Governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app, calling it the third Russian air assault on the region in the past week.

Russia has been launching swarms of Iranian drones against infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine since October 2022. The drones are also used during missile attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Western countries have sanctioned dozens of individuals and entities involved in the supply of the kamikaze weapons.

"However, one of the downed drones fell into a residential area in Odesa district and exploded," Kiper said, adding that several houses were damaged, and one person was found dead in one of them afterwards.

The air force said its defense systems destroyed a cruise missile in addition to the drones. It said, without providing details, that Russia also launched an Iskander ballistic missile that "did not reach" its target.

The Russian air weapons were destroyed over Odesa, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnitskyi regions, the air force said.

On Saturday, the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was hit by Russian drone attacks, local authorities reported.

The regional military administration said that one doctor was injured when the debris from a shot down an Iranian Shahed drone rained down on the hospital building in the port city.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South reported that it shot down nine Iranian-made Russian-operated drones over the Kherson region.

With reporting by Reuters, AP