Russian forces stage deadly attacks in southern, northern Ukraine

(Reuters) -Russian forces launched deadly attacks on Wednesday on frequent targets in the south and north of Ukraine, in Kharkiv and Odesa regions, killing seven people and injuring many more, officials said.

In Odesa district in the south, an early evening missile attack killed four people, including a 10-year-old girl, and injured 14 more, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Kiper said four of the injured were in serious condition with doctors “fighting to save their lives”. One man had had his legs amputated.

In northeastern Kharkiv region, which has been subjected to intensified Russian attacks on cities and energy sites in recent weeks, a strike on a pharmacy killed a 14-year-old girl and two women in the village of Lyptsi, regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Two people were injured and rescuers combed rubble for other possible victims.

Two guided bombs destroyed a clinic in the village of Vovchansk, injuring one person, Synehubov said. Separately, Russian troops dropped an explosive on a bus, wounding a man, according to the interior ministry.

On the Russian side of the border, Roman Starovoyt, governor of Kursk region, said three people, two of them children, were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a car.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.

In Odesa, Kiper said missiles, presumed to be Iskander-M ballistic missiles, struck between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (1500-1530 GMT) and also damaged transport infrastructure, including nearby trucks.

“People in cars and on foot were heading home at the end of the work day and became victims of a treacherous double strike,” the Ukrainian military said on Telegram.

A petrol station had been hit and was still burning late in the evening, it said. Shops, warehouses and administrative buildings all sustained damage.

Odesa, one of Ukraine’s busiest ports, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the 25-month-old war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the deaths in his nightly video address, saying, “Russian terror persists day and night at our border and in frontline areas”.

Zelenskiy said he had discussed Ukraine’s domestic production of missiles at a meeting of top commanders and military industry officials and said Ukrainian industry had achieved “the necessary results”.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleskandr KozhukharEditing by Bill Berkrot and Leslie Adler)