A Ukrainian drone attack killed a child and injured eight people in the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, damaging four businesses and more than two dozen residential buildings, local officials said on Wednesday.
Novorossiysk Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said the overnight attack killed a child and damaged four enterprises and more than 20 residential buildings.
Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said another person was killed and several others were wounded elsewhere in the southern region, where Novorossiysk is located.
Novorossiysk is a major oil and grain export hub. Unverified videos circulated on Telegram purporting to show flames and smoke rising over the city.
In Russian-occupied Crimea, more than 30 drones were downed over Sevastopol, according to city Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. Several houses were damaged, but no injuries were reported.
Russian strikes hit Ukraine
In Ukraine, a Russian attack sparked a fire at a shopping centre in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
The attack also cut power to about 1,200 consumers, he said.
A separate Russian attack damaged infrastructure in Ukraine's largest seaport Odessa, according to Serhiy Lysak, head of the city's military administration.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 502 Ukrainian drones overnight across several Russian regions.
Black Sea strikes and oil exports
The attacks come as Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and other sites, saying the campaign aims to deprive Moscow of resources used to fund its military.
Ukraine has paused drone attacks on oil tankers using Novorossiysk's Black Sea port following a request from US Vice President JD Vance, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing Ukrainian officials.
The report said Washington was concerned that the attacks were disrupting oil markets and affecting US companies by targeting tankers carrying crude from Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at Novorossiysk.
According to the report, Ukraine agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels provided they were not under Ukrainian sanctions and were not carrying Russian oil or cargo.
War spills into regional energy markets
Black Sea drone attacks disrupted as much as one-fifth of CPC oil loadings in July, according to four sources familiar with the data, affecting crude exports from Kazakhstan and operations by Western oil companies including Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
Kazakhstan, which relies heavily on the CPC route to export crude, recorded a 14 percent drop in oil production in July compared with June, according to the sources.
The escalation comes as Kiev pursues diplomatic efforts to end the war. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine had handed US negotiators proposals for a peace plan.
