Death toll in drone attack on Odesa apartment block rises to 10 as body of third child found
The death toll after a Russian drone attack which hit an apartment block in Odesa has risen to 10 with rescuers finding the bodies of a mother and baby.
Ukrainian authorities reported that an Iranian-made drone struck the block on Saturday.
They said that the drone was one of eight which targeted the port city in southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed children had died in the assault by Vladimir Putin’s forces and called on Kyiv's Western partners to send more air defence systems.
Ukraine's interior ministry on Sunday said emergency workers had recovered the remains of a woman and infant who were in an embrace as the mother tried to shield her baby.
“The mother tried to cover the 8-month-old child with her own (body). She tried to save them. They were found in a firm embrace,” a Telegram post published on the ministry's official channel said.
Zelensky called on Kyiv's Western partners to send more air defence systems so that such attacks could be intercepted. Three of the ten confirmed dead were children.
He wrote: “Delays in the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, as well as air defense to protect our people, unfortunately result in such losses. ... Ukraine has never requested anything more than what is necessary to protect lives.”
Four more people may be trapped in the rubble in Odesa, the local branch of Ukraine's main emergency service said in a Facebook update on Sunday.
Oleh Kiper, the local governor, said that rescue workers were trawling through the wreckage of the building and regional authorities announced a day of mourning for the victims.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday it did not comment on the reports but claimed that 38 Ukrainian drones were intercepted in attacks against its forces in Crimea.
Video posted online shows a blast allegedly near a fuel depot in the south-eastern city of Feodosiya.
Meanwhile Russia hit the southern Kherson region on Sunday killing one person and injuring another three, Ukrainian officials said.