Ukraine says Russian drone attack kills three in port city

KYIV (AFP): A Russian drone attack early Friday on Ukraine’s port city of Izmail on the Romanian border killed three people and wounded 11, including a child, the Odessa regional governor said.

Two elderly women and a 73-year-old man were killed, Oleg Kiper said in a statement. “Private and apartment buildings, outbuildings, buildings and cars were damaged,” he wrote, adding that several fires broke out but were quickly extinguished.

While far from the front, the southwestern city of Izmail and nearby areas are often targeted by Russian forces trying to disrupt port infrastructure, crucial for Ukraine’s shipping. Romania’s defense ministry said it scrambled four jets after detecting the approaching drones, adding that one drone might have entered its airspace for “less than three minutes.”

“According to the data available at the moment, there was no reported impact zone on national territory,” it said. An overnight missile attack also struck the central-eastern city of Dnipro, damaging an “industrial facility” but without causing injuries, its regional governor Sergiy Lysak said.