Two infants and toddler among dead after Russian strike on Ukraine’s Odesa

In the early hours of March 2, Russian troops attacked the Ukrainian city of Odesa with drones. At least 10 people, including three children, died after an apartment building was struck and partially collapsed. The search and rescue effort is ongoing.

Update: The bodies of two more children have been pulled from the rubble: eight-year-old Zlata and her brother, 10-year-old Serhiy. Their eight-month-old sister Liza was found dead earlier on Sunday.

Russia launched a drone attack on Odesa early on Saturday, hitting a multi-story residential building. Part of the building collapsed, destroying 18 apartments and damaging seven others. Rescuers pulled 10 bodies from the rubble, including those of three children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the deaths of two children during his evening address on Saturday. He named them as “Tymofiy, a four-month-old baby, and Mark, a boy who had not yet turned three.” Ukrainian media reported that Mark’s father also died in the strike, while his mother is in critical condition in the hospital. Tymofiy’s mother, Anna Haydarzhi, was also killed. Her husband and daughter survived.

Sunday morning, a third child was confirmed to have died. “The body of another deceased infant was found next to the body of a woman. According to preliminary information, the child was less than a year old,” wrote Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper.

Kiper declared March 3 a day of mourning for the victims.

On March 2, Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported that Russia had launched three missiles and 17 drones at Ukrainian territory. Air defenses successfully intercepted 14 of the drones. The Air Force confirmed casualties in Ukraine’s Odesa and Kharkiv regions.