War rages in the southern part of Ukraine

Both sides of the war have launched attacks on southern Ukraine, with Russia firing drones at Odessa and Kiev retaliating near Melitopol.

The Ukrainian army claimed to have shot down 10 drones on Saturday, but an additional five struck electrical infrastructure, knocking out electricity for about 1.5 million people.

Later, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, a Ukrainian, claimed that a strike had been launched against the Russian-controlled city.

There is a large fire seen in images posted by a Russian-installed official.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russia used Iranian-made drones in its drone strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

“Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn’t take hours, but a few days.”

Moscow has been employing heavy missile and drone assaults against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October.

Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor, claimed that scores of “invaders” had been slain while pro-Moscow officials in Melitopol claimed that a missile attack had killed two persons and injured ten others.

“Air defence systems destroyed two missiles, four reached their targets,” Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-appointed governor of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

He added that a “recreation centre” where people were dining had been destroyed in the Ukrainian attack with Himars missiles.