Civilian infrastructure hit as Russia launches drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa

Kyiv [Ukraine], April 19 : A Civilian infrastructure has been hit as Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine's Odesa on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported referring to the local authorities.

The commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, General Mykola Oleshchuk, claimed that 10 of the 12 "kamikaze" drones had been destroyed by air defences.

"At night, the enemy carried out an attack by UAVs of the Shahed-136 type on the Odesa region," the district military administration head of Odesa, Yuriy Kruk, said on Telegram, according to Al Jazeera.

"According to preliminary information, there were no casualties. Measures are being taken to contain the fire, units of the State Emergency Service and other structures are working on the spot," the military administration head said.

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has only recently escalated as a Russian missile attack on a residential neighbourhood in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Friday last week claimed at least 11 lives.

Quoting the governor of the Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko, Al Jazeera reported that seven Russian S-300 missiles had been fired at Sloviansk, west of the city Bakhmut, the site of the heaviest fighting on the Ukrainian front line.

The assault happened following Russian President Vladimir Putin's Friday signature on a bill that will make it simpler to enlist civilians in the military and prevent them from fleeing the country if called up, reported Al Jazeera.

A draftee would be prohibited from travelling internationally under the law, which Putin signed on Friday, and would need to report to an enlisting office after receiving electronic call-up papers.

Last year, after Putin declared a mobilisation to support the soldiers in Ukraine, tens of thousands of men left Russia.

According to Al Jazeera, Moscow claimed it was attempting to seize more districts of the devastated Bakhmut when it launched the attack on Sloviansk, whose population have left in large numbers since Russia's invasion.

The Russia-Ukraine war that started on February 24 has taken numerous lives and the war continues to escalate between the two nations even now.