(Reuters) -Ukraine and Russia attacked targets on each other’s territory on Thursday after brief direct talks between the two sides failed to make any progress on steps to end nearly three-and-a-half years of war.
Russian forces staged the latest in a series of mass drone attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, killing one person, injuring at least four and causing several fires as well as damage in the historic centre, a UNESCO world heritage site.
The famous Pryvoz market in Odesa was among the places hit, Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said. “It is not just a place of trade, it is the living heart of Odesa,” he added.
Kiper said the body of a man had been recovered from under rubble at a multi-storey apartment building.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeast, two people were killed and at least 33 were wounded when Russian glide bombs struck a residential neighbourhood, officials said.
Another person was killed in a drone attack in Sumy region on the northern border, where Russian troops have established a foothold in recent months.
In Odesa, some residents were cleaning up shattered glass in the streets nearby.
“So what if the (drones) are flying? We will shoot them down; they will not break us,” Yevhen, a 20-year-old student among those helping with the cleanup, told Reuters.
Emergency officials in Russia’s Krasnodar region on the Black Sea said debris from a falling drone struck and killed a woman in the Adler district near the resort city of Sochi. A second woman was being treated in hospital for serious injuries, they said on the Telegram messaging app.
The administrative head of the Sirius federal district south of Sochi said a drone hit an oil base, giving no further details. Russia’s aviation authority said operations were suspended at Sochi airport for about four hours.
Russia also attacked the central region of Cherkasy overnight, injuring seven people, including a nine-year-old, and damaging more than a dozen residential apartment buildings.
FURTHER PRISONER SWAPS
Negotiators had earlier discussed further prisoner swaps at a brief session of peace talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul, but they remained far apart on ceasefire terms and a possible meeting of their leaders.
“Yesterday, at a meeting in Istanbul, the Russian side was again presented with a proposal to immediately and completely cease fire. In response, Russian drones are striking residential buildings,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
He said Russia had launched 103 drones and four missiles during its overnight attack, which deputy prime minister Oleskiy Kuleba said struck civilian infrastructure, including seaports, transport hubs, and residential areas.
Russian forces have in recent weeks intensified drone attacks on towns and cities far from the 1,000 km (620-mile) frontline across eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military has been targeting energy and military sites in Russia in response to concerted Russian attacks which have destroyed towns and cities and devastated its energy infrastructure.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Ron Popeski and Shri Navaratnam)
