At least 19 killed in Ukraine

KYIV, Apr 16 (BBC): Russia launched more than 700 drones and missiles at Ukraine in multiple waves overnight, killing at least 19 people in what local officials said was the deadliest attack in months.

Nine people were reportedly killed in the southern port city of Odesa, four - including a child - in the capital Kyiv, and another four in the central city of Dnipro.

In Russia, two people - including a child - were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Krasnodar Krai region, Moscow said.

This comes after a brief ceasefire took place over Orthodox Easter at the weekend - but both sides accused one another of hundreds of violations. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In Kyiv, warning sirens jolted people awake at 02:30 local time on Thursday (23:30 GMT on Wednesday), followed soon after by the first explosions.

Images posted online by eyewitnesses show bright orange fires and huge plumes of black smoke in central areas of the city. In one video, a drone was filmed slamming straight into the side of an apartment block.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram that a 12-year-old boy was among four people killed. Another 45 people were injured. The mayor added that rescuers had pulled a mother and child from the ruins of a 16-storey residential building that collapsed in the city's central Podilsky district.

In the north of the capital, four emergency medical workers were among those injured. In Dnipro, four people were killed and dozens were injured, regional head Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram. Pictures posted online showed buildings ablaze in the city.

The city has been attacked by drones repeatedly in recent days. In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, a drone strike injured a 77-year-old woman and a 66-year-old man, an official said.

Two cities in the south, Mykolaiv and Kherson, have been left without power, according to local officials. Ukraine's air force said that Russia launched 659 drones and 44 cruise and ballistic missiles in the past 24 hours.

It said that 636 drones and 31 missiles had been shot down - but there had been direct hits in 26 locations. Writing on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, saying it proved that US and European sanctions against Russia should not be weakened.

"Russia is betting on war, and that is exactly how the response should be - we must protect lives with all our might and press for peace with all our might as well," he wrote.

Zelensky warned again earlier this week that Ukraine was facing a critical shortage of Patriot air defence missiles, the only means it has of intercepting Russia's ballistic missiles to secure its skies.

Global stocks of the US-made missiles are limited and many have been diverted to the Middle East since the US and Israel began attacking Iran in February.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the latest Russian attack a "war crime", and urged allies to increase pressure on Moscow and support for Kyiv.