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Russian drone attack kills 7 in Odesa, Ukraine says

Ukrainian forces face major supply shortages
Ukrainian forces face major supply shortages 02:36

Seven people were killed when debris from a Russian drone hit an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said Saturday. A 3-month-old baby was among the dead.

A further eight people were injured, authorities said.

Odesa regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said the Shahed drone was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, and that the falling debris hit the apartment building.

Ukraine's Armed Forces reported that the Odesa region was attacked by eight drones, of which seven were shot down by air defenses.

Russian drone attack on Odesa
Rescuers remove the rubble from a section of a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike in Odesa, Ukraine, on March 2, 2024. A drone hit a block of flats, destroying a section with 18 apartments. Several people were killed.  Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Across the country, air defenses shot down 14 of 17 drones launched against Ukraine, according to the armed forces.

Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported Saturday morning that over 20 settlements in the eastern Ukrainian province had sustained Russian artillery and mortar attacks, while high-rise buildings in the regional capital, also called Kharkiv, were damaged by a drone attack.

He said there were no casualties, but that three people suffered an "acute stress reaction."

In the partly-occupied Kherson region, Russian artillery shelling killed a 53-year-old man on Saturday morning, the Kherson regional prosecutor's office said.

In Russia, a drone crashed into an apartment building in St. Petersburg on Saturday morning, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Six people received medical help after the explosion rocked the building, the agency said, citing the press service of the city's health care committee.

The Mash news site said that the apartment building was hit by a Ukrainian drone. The Associated Press could not verify this claim.

The site published videos appearing to show the moment the apartment building was struck, showing a strong flash of light engulfing one side of the building and fragments of debris flying into the air. Another video showed car alarms going off.

Russia's Defense Ministry has not commented on the incident.

In Russia's Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine, an investigative team came under attack by a Ukrainian drone, according to the Russian Investigative Committee. Two members of the team were wounded and two others suffered shock, the committee wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian forces face major supply shortages

Saturday's Odesa drone attack comes as Ukrainian troops are rationing ammunition and salvaging parts in order to keep up the fight against Russia.

Ammunition stocks are dangerously low on the eastern frontlines, along with other crucial supplies needed to keep the war effort moving. 

CBS News was taken to an undisclosed wooded location not far from the battlefield, where a small team of mechanics have been working around the clock to fix damaged Humvees. It's like a triage for battle-worn military vehicles. 

They have put more than 100 of these American-made vehicles back into the fight in the month of February alone. 

The vehicles that cannot be saved are stripped down for spare parts. Ukrainian soldiers cannot afford to waste a single thing, cannibalizing radiators, drive shafts and suspension springs.

They are a maintenance, repair and overhaul unit, modeled on a U.S. military system they were trained under.

Maj. Ihor, the MRO unit's commander, tells CBS News that that lately, it's been getting "more and more difficult" to get new parts for these vehicles.

"We critically need more parts," he says. 

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