Ukrainian rescuers at work early Thursday at the scene of a drone strike on a residential area of Odessa in southwestern Ukraine. Photo by Igor Tkachenko/EPA-EFE
May 1 (UPI) — Russia launched aerial attacks against five Ukrainian regions in the east, southwest and center of the country overnight, launching balllistic missiles and more than 100 drones that killed at least two people and injured more a dozen.
“While Ukraine makes progress on the international front, Russians continue to bombard our civilian population back home,” deputy prime minister and econony minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote in a post on X Thursday morning, hours after inking a landmark deal to share Ukraine’s mineral resources with the United States.
“Last night, Russia attacked Ukraine with 5 ballistic missiles and 170 drones. Among the targets was our historic coastal city of Odessa, with 2 people killed and 15 injured. Apartment buildings, a school and other civilian infrastructure destroyed,” she wrote.
Odessa Gov. Oleh Kiper shared images on Telegram showing extensive damage to a large apartment building in the key Black Sea port, emergency service personnel tackling major fires, and shattered shopfronts.
Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Donetsk were also targeted.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram account that an elderly woman was hospitalized Thursday morning after being caught in a what officials believe was a delayed-action cluster munitions explosion in the southeastern part of the capital.
“The explosive part of the downed drone went off with a delay. An elderly woman, a resident of the Darnytskyi district, was injured,” he wrote.
Kyiv City Military Administration Head Tymur Tkachenkov said the blast was among 10 unidentified detonations recorded in the area being investigated as possible delayed-action munitions.
Acting Kyiv Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk said in an update on social media that three areas of the city, including the Boryspil district, were hit overnight with 12 private houses and a shop damaged mostly by fires ignited by falling debris from drones downed by air defenses.
Rural districts in the surrounding region were also targeted.
“Another overnight attack by Russian UAVs on Kyiv Oblast. Air defense systems were active in the region. Several aerial targets were shot down. There are no civilian casualties,” Kalashnyk said/
“Residents whose property was damaged will be provided with all necessary assistance. We are already working on this together with local authorities and our international partners.”
At least eight explosions were heard in the eastern city of Sumy after “Shahed” type attack drones were detected heading toward the regional capital by the Ukrainian Air Force.
Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said an industrial facility was badly damaged but that no casualties had been reported.
In Kharkiv, four explosions were reported in the northwest of the city.
“Early reports indicate that the enemy has hit the Kyivskyi district in Kharkiv with a Molniya UAV,” Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on his social media account.
Earlier reports said a gas station was set ablaze late Wednesday after being struck by a drone.
Production equipment, raw materials and cars were also damaged in a drone strike that ignited a major blaze at an industrial and warehouse complex in Vasyshcheve, 12 miles south of Kharkiv.
The Air Force said it shot down or jammed 74 of a total of 170 drones launched overnight.
The attacks came as Svyrydenko and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed a long-delayed agreement Wednesday on sharing Ukraine’s resources, particularly its deposits of so-called “rare earths,” and the setting up of a joint Investment Reconstruction Fund in exchange for continued U.S. military and other assistance.
The breakthrough came on the 101st day of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has pledged to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, with the minerals deal a central plank of his plan.
Svyrydenko traveled to Washington three days after Trump held a one-to-one private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inside the Vatican on the sidelines of the funeral of the late Pope Francis, with iconic images later emerging of the pair huddled in intense conversation in a corner of St. Peter’s Basilica.