Three killed by Russian drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa

Eight others suffered injuries when a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in the country’s southern port city

A general view shows an apartment building heavily damaged by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine Mar 2, 2024. REUTERS

Three people including a three-year-old child were killed and eight others wounded when a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa on Saturday, authorities said.

"Russia continues to fight civilians... One of the enemy drones hit a residential building in Odessa. Eighteen apartments were destroyed," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post

He posted a video showing an apartment building with a chunk several stories tall ripped out of it, and dozens of rescuers trying to cut through a sea of rubble on the ground.

Ukraine's State Emergencies Service posted photos including of a dead toddler being placed in a body bag by rescuers.

"This is impossible to forget! This is impossible to forgive," it wrote. It said five people including a child had been rescued alive.

According to Zelensky, the drone was a Shahed supplied by Iran. Russia has launched several thousand of these long-range winged drones throughout the war at targets deep inside Ukraine.