KYIV: Ukrainian air defences shot down 15 out of 25 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack on the southern Odesa region, but an infrastructure facility was hit, the military and regional officials said on Monday.
The military said in a statement that 10 drones were downed in the skies over the Black Sea port of Odesa.
"Another massive nighttime drone attack by the Russians in the Odesa region. Combat work lasted for one hour and a half," said Oleh Kiper, the Odesa regional governor.
"Air defence units repelled many waves of drones coming from the Black Sea via complex manoeuvres and between residential buildings and industrial districts, that made air defence work more difficult."
Kiper said that an infrastructure facility, an administrative building, and some commercial buildings were damaged. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The southern Odesa region has come under six Russian drone attacks so far this month.
Russia has intensified bombardments of Ukrainian ports, including Odesa, and grain infrastructure after Moscow last summer pulled out of a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed some food exports to flow, despite the war, now in its third year.
Ukraine is a major agricultural producer and exporter and Kyiv has since set up an alternative corridor to ship its products via its Black Sea ports near Odesa.
Ukrainian officials have said that exports of different cargo - including grains and metal - from Ukrainian Black Sea ports reached nearly pre-invasion levels last month.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Sunday that the Russian military had launched 175 drones on different targets in Ukraine since the start of March. Ukraine downed 151 of them, he said.
Meanwhile, former U.S. leader Donald Trump will not give money to help Ukraine fight Russia if he wins the presidency again and that will hasten an end to the war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after meeting him.
Nationalist premier Orban, who is backing his long-time ally's bid to return to White House, met Trump in Florida on Friday.
"He will not give a penny into the Ukraine-Russia war and therefore the war will end," Orban told state television late on Sunday. "As it is obvious that Ukraine on its own cannot stand on its feet."
"If the Americans do not give money and weapons, and also the Europeans, then this war will be over. And if the Americans do not give money the Europeans are unable to finance this war on their own, and then the war will end." — Reuters
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