A woman clutching an infant is found in the rubble of Ukraine building after Russian drone strike
KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Western allies to boost Ukraine’s air defenses after a Russian drone strike destroyed an apartment block in the southern port city of Odesa and killed at least 11 people. Officials on Sunday said the bodies of a boy and a young woman, who was clutching an infant, were pulled from Saturday’s rubble.
“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,†said a post on the messaging app Telegram, published on the Interior Ministry’s official channel. Separately, the governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the other child was 10.
On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said another baby was among those killed after falling debris from an Iranian-made drone hit the building — one of eight Russian drones reported by officials. Later that day, Zelensky said a second child, age 2, had also died.
“Delays in the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, as well as air defense to protect our people, unfortunately result in such losses,†Zelensky wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
More people may still be trapped, the Odesa branch of Ukraine’s main emergency service said on Facebook. Kiper said rescue workers continued to comb through the site.
Ukraine officials say seven people were killed when debris from a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the port city of Odesa.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, regional authorities reported that a 58-year-old man died under rubble after Russian forces overnight shelled his village in southern Kherson province. Another civilian man, 38, was killed in a Russian artillery strike in the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, local Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.
On Sunday afternoon, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadim Filashkin said a Russian airstrike on the eastern town of Kurakhove wounded 16 people and damaged 15 high-rise apartment blocks.
In Russian-occupied Crimea, explosions were heard near an oil depot in the early hours Sunday, according to a local, pro-Kyiv Telegram news channel. Kremlin-installed officials in the territory said a nearby stretch of highway was closed for about eight hours.
Videos shared with pro-Ukrainian channel Crimean Wind showed explosions lighting up the sky, followed by booms. The channel said the footage was taken by residents near Feodosia, a coastal town in northeastern Crimea. It was not immediately possible to verify the circumstances in which the videos were shot.
An anti-Russian, Crimean Tatar-led underground group claimed that the blasts destroyed a pipeline, causing “colossal†damage.
A Ukrainian drone struck an oil depot in western Russia, causing a massive blaze as Kyiv’s forces apparently extended their attacks on Russian soil.
The group, Atesh — which means “fire†in Crimean Tatar — did not directly claim responsibility for the strike and said it had learned about its consequences from informers among Russian-appointed officials. Authorities in Kyiv did not immediately acknowledge the claims.
Traffic was halted early Sunday along a four-lane Russian federal highway near Feodosia, according to an advisor to Crimea’s Kremlin-installed leader. The Telegram post by Oleg Kryuchkov gave no reasons for the move.
More than eight hours later, Crimea’s transportation minister reported that traffic had partially resumed. A bridge that connects Crimea to Russian territory was also closed to traffic for about two hours early Sunday.
Russia’s defense ministry did not comment on the reports, but claimed that 38 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight into Sunday over the peninsula.
In Moscow, China’s special envoy on Ukraine held talks on Saturday evening with senior Russian diplomats in the first leg of a European trip that will also take him to Belgium, Poland, Germany and France, Chinese and Russian state media reported.
The retaliatory attack wounded 28 people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, officials said, after a fatal strike on the Russian city of Belgorod.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Special Representative Li Hui and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin agreed that negotiations are the only way to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Li’s trip, the second since May, comes as Kyiv seeks Beijing’s participation in peace talks that Switzerland is trying to organize. China claims it is neutral in Russia’s war on Ukraine but maintains close ties with Moscow, with frequent state visits and joint military drills.
On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said it was time to start discussing a cease-fire between Moscow and Kyiv, claiming that “both sides have now reached the limits of the results they can achieve through war.â€
Speaking at a news conference, Fidan said that such a move would not mean recognizing Russia’s occupation of parts of Ukraine.
“We believe that it is time to separate the issues of recognition of the occupation and sovereignty from the cease-fire issue,†he said.
Blann and Kozlowska reported from Kyiv and London, respectively. AP writers Simina Mistreanu in Taipei, Taiwan, and Cinar Kiper in Antalya, Turkey, contributed to this report.
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