A drone attack on a key border crossing in southern Ukraine turned deadly overnight, with officials reporting civilian casualties and fresh disruption along the frontier with Moldova.
“Tonight, enemy drones attacked the Starokozache international road checkpoint on the border with Moldova,” Odesa regional governor Oleg Kiper wrote on social media.
“Sadly, there are casualties among the civilians who were near the checkpoint: according to preliminary information, two people were killed and three wounded.”
An image attached to Mr Kiper’s message showed a deserted border post littered with debris.
The strike prompted authorities to shut the checkpoint, about 500km south of Kyiv, Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service said.
Moldova also reported fallout from the attack, with the country’s foreign ministry saying a Moldovan driver was injured.
Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tofan said Russia’s war against Ukraine was “increasingly endangering the lives of our citizens as well”.
Mr Tofan said 17 drones had hit Moldovan territory in August alone, more than during the whole of last year.
“The attacks have intensified so much,” he said in a video of a cabinet meeting posted on Facebook.
“It’s becoming the norm, yet at the same time it’s clearly an extremely worrying development.”
Across the border in Russia, officials in the southern Krasnodar region said a Ukrainian drone attack struck the port city of Novorossiysk, killing four people — including a child — and injuring 29 others. Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that Novorossiysk was hit hardest.
Novorossiysk is a frequent target of Ukrainian drone strikes and a major outlet for Russian oil, oil products and grain exports, among other commodities.
Novorossiysk mayor Andrei Kravchenko said that drone debris fell on the premises of a number of businesses and close to an inhabited building.
There were fires after the attack, regional authorities added.
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Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down 596 Ukrainian drones during the night, coming a day after the country’s president held talks with his US counterpart about possible routes to resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
“Our military repelled a massive overnight enemy drone attack against the region, with Novorossiysk hit the hardest,” Mr Kondratyev said.
In Anapa, another town in the southern region of Krasnodar, three homes and a kindergarten were damaged by drone debris, but no one was injured, Mr Kondratyev said.
Vladimir Putin Putin spoke with US President Donald Trump by telephone yesterday, with Washington pushing for face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Kyiv has said the talks could happen this month, but the Kremlin has said it is “too early” to discuss a venue or dates.
Mr Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had visited the Russian and Ukrainian capitals at the weekend for talks with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr Putin.
There was no immediate breakthrough in the bid to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
