Two killed in Russian drone attack - Ukrainian authorities

[December 27, 2023]  KYIV (Reuters) -Two people were killed after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in an overnight air strike, Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday.

The Ukraine air force said that 32 of 46 Iranian-made drones deployed by Russia had been shot down. Most of the rest struck near the front line, mainly in the southern Kherson region.

A fire burns at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa region, Ukraine December 27, 2023. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa region/Handout via REUTERS

The governor of Ukraine's Odesa region said that a 35-year-old man was killed by debris from a downed drone in a residential area. Another man died in the hospital from his injuries.

Four others including a 17-year-old boy were wounded, according to the governor, Oleh Kiper.

There were no other immediate reports of casualties. The air force said the military had shot down drones over parts of central, southern and western Ukraine.

Russia has carried out a campaign of regular air strikes on population centers far behind the front line of its nearly two-year-old war in Ukraine.

Ukraine's interior ministry also reported a separate fatality from overnight shelling of Kherson city.

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Editing by Tom Hogue, David Goodman and Angus MacSwan)

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