Russian strike on Ukraine’s Odesa kills two, wounds 14

 A Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa killed two people and wounded 14, including children, local authorities said on Saturday.

Moscow has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. Peace talks initiated by the United States to end the three-year conflict have meanwhile stalled. 

“Rescuers pulled the bodies of two people from the rubble who died as a result of a hostile drone strike on a residential building,” Odesa Governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.

The night-time strike wounded 14 people, Kiper added, “three of them children.”

Separately, authorities of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region said one person was killed and three others were wounded in Russian strikes over the past day.

“Russian troops targeted critical and social infrastructure and residential areas in the region,” the Kherson’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram early on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Russia’s offensive, which has forced millions from their homes and devastated much of eastern Ukraine.

At peace talks, Russia has demanded Ukraine cede even more land and give up Western military support as a precondition to peace -- terms Kyiv says are unacceptable.