RUSSIA and Ukraine exchanged strikes overnight that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported on Sunday.

Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a four-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, regional authorities said.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov.

A further eight people were injured in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, local administration head Oleh Kiper said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and other materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odessa.

It added that its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

In Belgorod, authorities said drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative and commercial buildings.

Debris from Ukrainian drones also fell on Novorossiysk, injuring one person, damaging two private houses and blowing out a window in an apartment block near a major fuel terminal linking Kazakhstan’s oil fields to global markets, which has previously been targeted by Ukrainian strikes.

Elsewhere, Bulgaria summoned Ukraine’s ambassador yesterday after a Ukrainian drone entered its airspace and exploded near an international gas pipeline on Saturday, shortly after crossing from Romania.

No casualties or damage were reported.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the incident did not deliberately target Bulgaria, adding that the two countries were in “close contact” to clarify what happened.