Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western allies to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense following the deadly attack.
The death toll rose to 11 on Sunday following a Russian drone strike that destroyed an apartment in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa the day before.
Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odessa region, reported Sunday afternoon that the body of a 10-year-old boy named Serhii had been found among the rubble. Hours earlier, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry reported that rescuers had recovered the remains of a woman holding a baby in her arms.
“The mother tried to cover the eight-month-old child with her own body. She tried to save him. They were found in a tight embrace”detailed the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior in a Telegram message.
On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities announced that another young baby was among those killed after debris from an Iranian-made drone fell on the building – one of eight Russian drones reported by authorities.
Later in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a second child had also died and called on Kyiv’s Western partners to send more air defense systems.
Four more people may be trapped in the rubble in Odessa, the local branch of Ukraine’s main emergency service said in a Facebook update on Sunday. Oleh Kiper, the local governor, said rescuers were continuing to search the site after announcing a day of mourning for the victims.
Crimea targeted
In Russian-occupied Crimea, loud explosions were heard near an oil depot in the early hours of Sunday, according to a local pro-Kyiv Telegram news channel, while officials installed in the territory by the Kremlin said that a nearby section of highway was closed to traffic for more than eight hours.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on this information on Sunday, but said that 38 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted overnight from Saturday to Sunday above the peninsula.
