ODESA, Ukraine, April 6 (Reuters) - Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa overnight on Monday, killing a 30-year-old mother and her two-year-old daughter, and one more woman, damaging residential buildings and energy infrastructure, the regional governor said.
"Overnight, Odesa came under another heavy attack by the enemy," Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional governor, said on the Telegram app, adding that 16 people, including a pregnant woman and two small children, were injured.
Residential buildings, energy infrastructure, and a kindergarten were hit, Ukrainian officials added.
About 16,700 households in several Odesa districts were without electricity, energy company DTEK said, adding that the damage was extensive and that repairs would take time.
Reuters television footage showed rescue workers and firefighters clearing the debris at one of the strike sites—a residential house with a severely damaged central part of the building.
"Two drones struck at our house—one at the roof and the other at the central part of the house. Our staircase collapsed completely and blocked our way out," 21-year-old Danylo, who lives in the house, told Reuters.
With the war now in its fifth year, Moscow has escalated its attacks on Odesa, a key logistics hub in southern Ukraine and the country's largest port, handling the majority of the Ukrainian grain and other maritime exports.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a post on social media platform X, said Russia launched 140 drones at Ukraine in overnight attacks and also struck energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, reiterating his call for more air defence.
"Russia has no intention of stopping," Zelenskiy said.
"During the past week, over 2,800 attack drones were used, along with nearly 1,350 guided aerial bombs, and more than 40 missiles of various types.
(Reporting by Iryna Nazarchuk in Odesa, Olena Harmash in Kyiv; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Janane Venkatraman)
