Russian drones have struck a parking lot for trucks in southern Ukraine’s Odesa overnight on Sunday.
Authorities said two have been killed, though their identities have not been established. Another person, a 42-year-old man, is hospitalized with burn injuries, in addition to two other people who received medical care on the spot.
Odesa Regional State Administration wrote on Telegram that five trucks were set on fire despite efforts by air defense to intercept the drones. However, it said the fire was quickly extinguished.
In a later update, it wrote that four of the trucks hit were empty, while one other was a “grain truck with a load of soybeans.”
Ukraine’s Air Force said it has downed 67 drones across the country overnight, with Russia having launched two Iskander-M missiles and 79 drones of various models.
“One ballistic missile and 12 strike drones hit six locations, and wreckage of shot down drones fell in two locations,” its morning update says without specifying the location of the strikes.
The Odesa Regional State Administration called the attack on the trucking lot a “war crime,” saying that law enforcement is “documenting another war crime of the Russian Federation against the civilian population of the Odessa region.”
Odesa, especially its port and oil facilities, has long been a target of Russian strikes, but the latest attacks have also hit local energy infrastructure as Moscow continues its campaign against Ukraine’s energy sector.
On Tuesday, a Russian strike damaged a DTEK energy facility in the region, injuring one employee and leaving around 30,000 homes without electricity.
Earlier the same month, clothing warehouses were struck in the region after another attack set the Odesa port ablaze and left 30,000 residents without power.
At the beginning of October, another strike hit the rail depot in Odesa, setting it on fire during a Russian aerial strike across Ukraine.