Residents gather next to their destroyed cars and a damaged apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, in Odesa on Saturday (November 9, 2024).
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“At least two people were injured and buildings were damaged in an overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa,” Ukrainian officials said on Sunday (November 10, 2024).

“The enemy has once again launched a massive attack on our region,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Odesa region said on its social media account. “Garages with cars and property were on fire; residential buildings and shops were damaged.”

Oleh Kiper, Governor of the region on the Black Sea coast, said, without providing further detail, that the attack caused some fires.

The Ukrainian Military said its air defence downed 62 out of the record 145 Russian drones launched overnight, while it lost track of 67 drones and 10 more left Ukraine in direction to Russia, Moldova, and Belarus.

“Odesa and other regions have been affected by the occupiers’ attack. Apartment buildings and private properties were damaged, but there were no casualties,” the Military said on the Telegram messenger.

Video footage posted by the emergency services showed firefighters combing in the dark through a pile of a building debris and an apartment building with blown-out windows, while residents gathered in front.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the attack. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022, but thousands of civilians have since died, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.