Monday, 06 April 2026
Monday, 06 April 2026
Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa overnight on Monday, killing three people, including a child, and damaging infrastructure, residential and administrative buildings, Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional governor, said.
"Overnight, Odesa came under another heavy attack by the enemy," he posted on the Telegram app. As well as the three dead, 10 people were injured, he added.
"Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative facilities were hit. There is significant damage," Kiper said. With the war now in its fifth year, Moscow has escalated its attacks on Odesa, a key logistics hub in southern Ukraine and the country's largest port, handling the majority of the Ukrainian grain and other maritime exports.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed concern that a prolonged US-Israeli war on Iran could further erode America's support for Ukraine.
As Washington's global priorities shift, Kyiv braces for reduced deliveries of critically needed Patriot air defence missiles.
Ukraine desperately needs more US-made Patriot air defence systems to help it counter Russia's daily barrages, Zelenskyy said, speaking to The Associated Press in an exclusive interview late Saturday in Istanbul.
Zelenskyy had been counting on European partners to help make the Patriot purchases despite tight supply and limited US production capacity.
But the Iran war, now in its sixth week, has sent shock waves through the global economy and pulled in much of the wider Middle East region, further straining these already limited resources, diverting stockpiles and leaving Ukrainian cities more exposed to ballistic strikes.
For Kyiv, a key objective is to weaken Moscow's economy and make the war prohibitively costly. Surging oil prices driven by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz are undermining that strategy by boosting the Kremlin's oil revenues and strengthening Moscow's capacity to sustain its war effort.
In his interview with the AP, Zelenskyy said Russia draws economic benefits from the Mideast war, citing the limited easing of American sanctions on Russian oil.
"Russia gets additional money because of this, so yes, they have benefits," he said.
Russia's relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago has killed thousands of civilians. It has also targeted Ukraine's energy supply to disrupt industrial production of Ukraine's newly developed drones and missiles, while also denying civilians heat and running water in winter.
"We have to recognise that we are not the priority for today," Zelenskyy said. "That's why I am afraid a long (Iran) war will give us less support."
