Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on the Russian Black Sea coast overnight, killing at least two people and hitting the port city of Novorossiysk, the governor of the Krasnodar region said on Wednesday morning.
Veniamin Kondratyev made the announcement on Telegram, saying 21 residential buildings and four businesses in Novorossiysk had been damaged.
An 8-year-old child was killed in the city, he said, and eight people were injured. In the coastal town of Temryuk, one man was also killed, he said. Damage was also reported from Anapa and Gelendzhik.
Reports from Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels said the city's naval port, commercial port and oil loading terminal were hit. The US space agency NASA's FIRMS fire detection system also showed fires at those locations.
Russia's Defence Ministry in Moscow said 502 Ukrainian combat drones had been intercepted overnight, a comparatively high number. Heavy attacks were also reported from the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Russian airstrikes hit the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya overnight, among other locations. Regional authorities said a large fire broke out at a hardware store there, and power outages were reported.
Ukraine has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for nearly four and a half years.