KYIV – Ukrainian officials reported Saturday that Russian forces conducted extensive drone strikes across the country, resulting in four civilian deaths and widespread damage to essential facilities including energy infrastructure, port operations, homes, and a maternity hospital.
According to Ukraine’s air force, Russian military units deployed 273 drones in the assault, with the majority concentrated on the southern Odesa region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported that over 60 drones targeted Odesa city specifically during the offensive.
“There was no military purpose whatsoever – this was pure terror against ordinary civilian life,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram. “Sadly, there is extensive damage.”
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper confirmed that two individuals lost their lives in the Odesa attacks, while 12 others sustained injuries, including one child.
In Ukraine’s central Poltava region, a 55-year-old energy sector employee was fatally struck when Russian forces targeted the nation’s natural gas production infrastructure, according to energy firm Naftogaz.
Additionally, a 28-year-old man died in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial center located in the Dnipropetrovsk region, regional authorities confirmed.
Ukrainian defense forces successfully intercepted 252 of the incoming drones, though 21 managed to strike their intended targets across 18 different locations, the air force reported.
The assault on the Black Sea port city of Odesa resulted in significant damage to the maternity ward facility, apartment complexes, and harbor infrastructure, local officials stated.
Video footage captured firefighters responding to the hospital site, where windows were shattered and the roof structure was destroyed.
Hospital director Ihor Shpak explained to reporters that a massive blast tore through the medical facility, obliterating the rooftop, destroying connecting passages between the third and fourth levels, and damaging multiple patient rooms.
Medical staff successfully relocated 22 newborn infants, including twin babies requiring ventilator assistance, along with 32 additional patients to protective areas moments before the strike occurred, Shpak noted.
Local resident Olena Kudriashova described her fear as Shahed drones approached her neighborhood.
“On the right, on the left, at the front, and at the back, windows and doors were smashed. Our little window survived, and we’re so happy we made it through the night,” she said while standing outside her damaged building in central Odesa.
