KYIV, Ukraine, March  2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky on Saturday urged the West to deliver more air defence systems as a
wave of Russian missile, drone and artillery strikes killed at least ten people.

       Seven were confirmed dead, including a three-month-old baby and
two-year-old child, after an overnight drone strike on the southern port city
of Odesa.

       Separate shelling attacks on the frontline Kharkiv, Kherson and
Zaporizhzhia regions killed another three, Ukrainian officials said.

       "Russia continues to hit civilians," Zelensky said in a post on social
media.

       "We need more air defences from our partners. We need to strengthen the
Ukrainian air shield to add more protection for our people from Russian terror.
More air defence systems and more missiles for air defence systems save lives,"
he said.

       Ukraine is currently on the back foot in the two-year war as a crucial
$60-billion aid package is held up in the United States congress.

       In Odesa, "a nine-storey building was destroyed as a result of an attack by
Russian terrorists," Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Saturday in a post
on Telegram.

       The attack killed at least seven people, including a three-month-old baby,
Klymenko said.

       Another child, aged two, was also among the dead, Odesa region Governor
Oleg Kiper said on state TV.

       Around 10 people were still unaccounted for, with almost 100 rescuers set
to continue a search and rescue operation overnight.

       Footage shared from the scene showed several floors of a residential
building collapsed and its facade ripped off.

       Ukraine's air force said falling debris from Russian drones it had shot
down fell onto residential buildings in both Odesa and Kharkiv.

       Separate shelling attacks in the frontline regions of Kharkiv in the
northeast, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south killed three more, the
provincial heads said.
       
       - 'Difficult situation' -
      
       
       The attacks came with Russia seeking to press its advantage on the
battlefield.
       Kyiv has admitted it is heavily outgunned and outnumbered, facing
ammunition shortages amid aid delays.

       Half of all promised Western ammunition arrives in the country late, the
defence minister has said, in what he called critical delays that cost lives
and territory.

       Russian forces have advanced westwards following last month's capture of
Avdiivka, and have seized several small villages in recent days.

       Visiting frontline military posts on Saturday, Ukraine's new
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said "the situation at the front remains
difficult, but controlled".

       Kyiv also appeared to have launched its own overnight drone attack that
damaged a residential building in Saint Petersburg, Russia's second city.

       Videos on Russian social media showed what appeared to be a drone
spiralling downwards into the building, triggering an explosion, blowing out
windows and causing small fires.

       The city's National Guad division said its preliminary assumption was that
the damage was caused by a "falling drone".

       Ukrainian media reported that the drone was shot down by Russia's air
defences while targeting an oil depot around a kilometre from the crash site.

       Kyiv has hit several Russian oil facilities in recent months in what it has
called fair retribution for Moscow's attacks on Ukraine's power grid.

       Russia's Investigative Committee said separately that four of its officials
had been injured when a Ukrainian drone dropped explosives over the Bryansk
border region.

       Russia also expressed outrage at a leak of confidential German army talks
in which officers allegedly discussed missile strikes on the annexed Crimean
peninsula.

       German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday promised a full investigation
after the head of Russia's state-run RT outlet posted the alleged leaked
recording on social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin.

       A spokeswoman for the German defence ministry on Saturday confirmed that a
secret air force conversation had been tapped, but that they could not say for
certain whether any changes had been made to the conversation in the leaked
audio file.

       Russia's foreign ministry demanded a "prompt" explanation from Berlin,
while Moscow's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov said it showed Ukraine's European
backers were intent on inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia on the
battlefield.