Russia-Ukraine strikes kill 4 including child, officials say

Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia and Russian attacks on southern Ukraine killed four people, including an eight-year-old child, officials from both countries said Wednesday.

Venyamin Kondratyev, governor of Russia's Krasnodar region, said an eight-year-old child was killed in Novorossiysk and eight people, including one child, were wounded and hospitalised. He said debris from drones damaged 21 buildings in the port city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had carried out an operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk, which he described as the last major Russian fleet stronghold in the Black Sea. He said hits on air defence positions, piers and seaport infrastructure had been confirmed.

Kondratyev said another person was killed when drone debris fell into the garden of a private house in the village of Volna. He also said two people were wounded in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik.

Russia's defence ministry said its air defences shot down 502 Ukrainian drones across Russian territory and the Black Sea overnight.

Ukraine's air force said Russia attacked with missiles and 138 drones, mostly aimed at the southern Odesa region and Sumy in the northeast. It said 112 of the drones were shot down or intercepted.

The city chief in Kherson, a frontline city in southern Ukraine, said Russian drones killed two people there, including a woman whose house was hit. Russian troops are based on the opposite side of the Dnipro River from the city.