JAKARTA - Russia hit the city of Odesa in the Black Sea of Ukraine with one of its largest drone attacks on Thursday night.
The attack injured three teenagers and sparked a fire when the Czech president visited.
The attack comes as the United States push for a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, and hopes to agree to a partial ceasefire that will halt attacks on energy infrastructure by both sides.
Czech President Petr Pavel, Kyiv's vocal supporter who has led efforts to get more than a million artillery shells for Ukraine's war, is in the port city to negotiate with regional officials at the time of the attack.
"The important thing is, during our meeting, the enemy once again attacks the Odesa region on a large scale," said the Governor by goalkeeper on the messaging app Telegram.
The long-range drone hit the city in several waves, damaged infrastructure, residential houses, and commercial buildings, and caused a lot of fires.
Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst, told Reuters Russia used a new tactic for the attack, by lowering drones from higher altitudes than usual and at high speed to complicate Ukraine's air defenses.
He said it was one of the "most massive" attacks in Odesa since Russia invaded in February 2022.
"That's intimidation. Terror against civilians," said Kovalenko.
Both Russia and Ukraine agreed that during separate talks with US officials, they were ready for a moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure. While Moscow rejected a more comprehensive 30-day ceasefire.
Delegations of Ukraine, the US and Russia will meet in Saudi Arabia separately on Monday to discuss details, officials said.
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Russia launched a total of 214 drones into Ukraine overnight, the air force said.
The air force did not specify how many unmanned aircraft targeted Odesa.
The Ukrainian military shot down 114 unmanned aircraft and 81 other unmanned aircraft were "lost", a term for drones being damped using electronic warfare defenses.
Ukraine uses drones to continue to strike targets in Russia, hitting oil infrastructure and strategic bomber bases in recent days.
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