Russian attack kills 3 in Odesa while Ukraine targets Russian oil infrastructure, officials say
Kyiv (AP): A Russian drone attack on Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa killed two women and a toddler, authorities said Monday, while Ukrainian long-range drones targeted Russia's key Black Sea port for oil exports.
The nighttime attack on Odesa heavily damaged an apartment block, killing the women and a 2-year-old child, officials said. Rescuers working under floodlights pulled four people from the rubble.
Eleven people were hospitalised, including a pregnant woman and two children — the youngest less than a year old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine since it invaded its neighbour just over four years ago, killing more than 15,000 people, according to the United Nations.
It has also taken aim at Ukraine's power grid, and the Russian overnight barrages also hit energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, Zelenskyy said.
More than 300,000 households were without electricity in the northern Chernihiv region after distribution facilities were damaged in attacks, according to the regional power utility.
Over the past week, Russia has launched at Ukraine more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 powerful glide bombs and more than 40 missiles of various types, according to Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy expressed concern in a weekend interview with The Associated Press that the war with Iran is draining stockpiles of weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself, especially American-made Patriot air defence systems that can stop missiles.
Zelenskyy said Monday that the country's partners “need to strengthen air defence together so that the interception rate of drones and missiles continues to increase.”
With U.S.-led peace efforts stalled, Zelenskyy added: “Russia has no intention of stopping” its invasion.
Ukraine has fought back by developing its own long-range drones, which now reach targets some 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) inside Russia.
Ukraine has used them recently to hammer Russian oil facilities as Moscow looks to boost its exports after the Trump administration gave it a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints. Kyiv officials complain that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.
Russia's Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 50 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that eight people, including two children, were injured in a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on Novorossiisk, one of Russia's largest Black Sea ports. The attack damaged six apartment buildings and two private houses, he said.
Unconfirmed media reports said the drones targeted the Sheskharis oil terminal at the Black Sea port.
Last week, Ukraine's drones struck oil facilities in the Gulf of Finland, in northwest Russia.
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Siddaramaiah will continue as K'taka CM under 'current situation': Minister Parameshwara
Mysuru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Monday asserted that Siddaramaiah will continue as the Chief Minister for the full five-year term under the "current situation".
He, however, maintained that any decision regarding the leadership change rests solely with the Congress high command.
"We don't know anything (about leadership change). Who said there will be a change? Who will change? The AICC has to do it. Since they haven't said anything, should we keep guessing? When they want to make changes, the high command will say so; they might not make any changes either," Parameshwara told reporters.
Asked if Siddaramaiah will continue as Chief Minister, he said, "Of course, he will, why shouldn't he? Siddaramaiah will continue under the current situation."
"If Siddaramaiah cannot continue, I'm not the one to say; it will not happen just because Parameshwara says so; the high command has to say," he added.
Amid the ongoing power tussle within the ruling Congress in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah recently asserted that the party's government will remain in power for two more years and that he is the Chief Minister of the state.
The leadership tussle within the ruling party has intensified amid speculation about a possible change of chief minister after the Congress government completed the halfway mark of its five-year term on November 20, 2025.
The speculation has been fuelled by the reported "power-sharing" arrangement between Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar at the time of government formation in 2023.
To a query about Shivakumar's aspirations to become the CM, the Home Minister said, "... He is our party state president, our senior leader and the Deputy Chief Minister. Who has to make him the Chief Minister? The high command has to respond, what they say is final. Let's wait until then."
In response to a question on the leadership issue causing a lot of confusion, Parameshwara asked, "Who created confusion? Did the Congress high command do it?"
Recalling that there was no explicit declaration in 2013 that Siddaramaiah would serve as the CM for five years, but he successfully completed his term until 2018, he said, "When Siddaramaiah was made CM in 2023, he has to be there for the full term. If he will not be there for the full term, high command has to decide."
Clarifying that the results of the upcoming by-polls in Bagalkote and Davanagere South will have no bearing on the CM's position, the senior Minister said, "Why should they be linked? Has anyone said there will be a change? Leave the BJP aside, we don't want their assessment. Should we run the administration based on what the BJP says?"
"There may be some discussion regarding a change in our party, but I'm not ready to say that there will be changes after the bypolls. Others can make their own personal assessments," he added.
Bypolls for the Bagalkot and Davanagere South Assembly constituencies will be held on April 9. The polls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs H Y Meti and Shamanur Shivashankarappa, respectively.
BJP MP and former CM Basavaraj Bommai recently said that the ongoing power tussle within the ruling Congress has taken a "short break" because of bypolls, and claimed that the state will witness a "political wrestling" for the Chief Minister's chair in May.
