Russian drones hit energy sites in Ukraine's Odesa as fighting on frontline intensifies

At least one person was injured and several fires broke out after a wave of Russian drone strikes hit Ukraine's Odesa region, the State Emergency Service (SES) said on Tuesday.

The attacks happened late on Monday and ignited fires at several energy infrastructure facilities, according to the SES. All the blazes were extinguished by firefighters, it said.

Strikes were also reported in the country's Dnipropetrovsk region. A fire broke out at a private business and has since been extinguished, according to the regional Head of Military Administration Vladyslav Haivanenko.

In Kramatorsk, a frontline city in eastern Ukraine, one person was reported killed in a Russian drone attack, the city council said.

Civilian infrastructure and residential areas were hit, with damage reported to an educational institution and several homes, according to the council.

The latest strikes came as fierce fighting continues along the frontline, particularly near the city of Pokrovsk, where Russian forces have been advancing in recent weeks.

Both sides are locked in a battle for control of Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia has massed around 170,000 troops for a renewed offensive.

Ukrainian forces repelled 63 Russian attacks there over the past day, the General Staff of the Armed Forces said on Tuesday.

The fiercest clashes are taking place in the northern part of Pokrovsk, where the city’s industrial zone is under the heaviest fire.

Romania finds possible drone fragments

Meanwhile, possible drone fragments were discovered inside Romania's southeastern border region following Russian strikes on Ukrainian Danube River ports overnight, the Romanian Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday.

Romanian radars detected groups of drones near the NATO member's airspace just after midnight on Tuesday, prompting the ministry to issue an alert to residents in the region.

Weather conditions did not allow for fighter jets to be deployed, the defence ministry said, but military teams were able to recover possible drone fragments some 5 kilometres inside Romania's border with Ukraine.

Breaches of Romania's airspace by drones have become increasingly frequent in recent months as Russia targets Ukrainian Danube River ports just across the border.

Officials have stated that samples collected from sites where drone fragments were found have been similar to those used by the Russian army.

Romania and Poland are now deploying a new weapons system to defend against Russian drones following a spate of incursions into NATO airspace in recent months that exposed the alliance’s vulnerabilities and put Europe on edge.