Russian Drone Attack: Ukraine’s Odesa without power

The southern Ukrainian city of Odesa was left without power yesterday following a night-time attack by "kamikaze drones" launched by Russia, authorities said, as the US announced new military aid for Kyiv and vowed to disrupt Russian ties with Iran.

"As of now, the city is without electricity," Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential administration, said on messaging app Telegram. Only critical infrastructure including hospitals and maternity wards had access to electricity.

The Black Sea port of Odesa was a favourite holiday destination for many Ukrainians and Russians before President Vladimir Putin sent troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24, reports AFP.

Maksym Marchenko, the governor of the region of Odesa, said Russia had attacked the city with "kamikaze drones" overnight. "As a result of the strike, there is no electricity in almost all districts and communities of our region," he said.

Two drones were shot down by Ukrainian air defence units, Marchenko added.

In Washington, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that US was very concerned about the "deepening and burgeoning defence partnership" between Iran and Russia, and would work to disrupt that relationship, including on drones.

Washington was sending a $275 million package of aid to Ukraine to strengthen air defences and defeat drones, he said.

Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward said Iran had sent hundreds of drones that Russia had used in Ukraine, reports Reuters.

"Russia is now attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles," she told reporters. "In return, Russia is offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support."

The Iranian and Russian missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said Moscow would probably do a deal over Ukraine one day but that Russia's near-total loss of trust in the West would make an eventual settlement, which he did not elaborate on, much harder to reach.

Russia has clamped down on dissent since it invaded Ukraine in February, and a Moscow court on Friday sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half years in prison on charges of spreading "false information" about the army.

Yashin had discussed in a YouTube video evidence uncovered by Western journalists of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Moscow denies committing war crimes. In a post on his Telegram channel, Yashin urged supporters to continue opposing the war.

On the ground in Ukraine, the entire front line in the east of the country was being shelled, said the governor of the Donetsk region, which is partly occupied by Russia. Five civilians were killed and two wounded in Ukrainian-controlled areas, the governor said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were standing their ground in the Donbas, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, despite huge difficulties, but that Russian forces had reduced the town of Bakhmut to ruins.

"The situation on the front line remains very tough," he said in an evening address on Friday. "I thank all our heroes, all soldiers and commanders who are... repelling assaults and inflicting significant losses on the enemy."