Russia strikes Ukraine's Odesa with Iranian kamikaze drones, missiles

 Russia launched a combined drone and missile attack on Ukraine early on Sunday, targeting chiefly the southern parts of the Odesa region and hitting an agriculture facility there, Ukraine's Air Forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia launched six Iranian-made Shahed drones and 10 cruise missiles, with Ukraine's forces destroying six drones and six missiles before they hit their target, the Air Force said.

The situation in Odesa and its ports has been watched carefully by grain markets, as Kyiv said on Saturday that two cargo vessels arrived there to use a temporary corridor to sail into Black Sea ports and load grain for African and Asian markets.

"Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups and other means of attack were involved in repelling the air attack," the Air Force said.

The extent of the damage was not immediately known and it was not clear what facility was hit. The Air Force said only that emergency services were on the site.

Reuters could not independently verify the report and there was no immediate comment from Russia.

The entire territory of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for several hours.

The Black Sea corridor

Ukraine last month announced a "humanitarian corridor" in the Black Sea to release ships trapped in its ports since the start of the war in February 2022 and to circumvent a de facto blockade after Russia abandoned a deal to let Kyiv export grain.