First responders at the scene of an apartment block demolished by a Russian drone strike, March 1, 2024

Friday’s Coverage: Putin Threatens Nuclear Conflict

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1139 GMT:

A drone has reportedly crashed into a five-story residential building in Russia’s second city St. Petersburg.

City governor Alexander Beglov said there were no casualties, without giving a cause for the explosion.

The house about a kilometer from the Ruchyi oil depot.

UPDATE 1128 GMT:

Another body has been found in the rubble after Russia’s drone attack on Odesa in southern Ukraine, taking the death toll to four.

The victims included a boy aged two to three years, a woman in her early 70s, and a man in his mid-30s.

Eight residents of the apartment block, including a child, were injured, including another child. Five people were rescued from the rubble.

UPDATE 1126 GMT:

Russian shelling of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine has killed a 53-year-old man.

The civilian was slain in the yard of his house in the village of Stanislav about 8:30 a.m.

UPDATE 1109 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s drone attack on an Odesa apartment building has risen to three killed and eight injured.

UPDATE 0737 GMT:

The Ukraine Air Force says air defenses downed 14 of 17 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The defenses also downed a Su-34 fighter jet, the 14th Russian warplane destroyed since mid-February.

UPDATE 0656 GMT:

Bulgaria halted Russian oil imports on Friday, ending a two-year exemption from the European Union’s embargo.

The embargo was supposed to last until the end of 2024; however, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted a new timeline late last year.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Two civilians have been killed and at least seven injured, including a 3-year-old boy, in Russia’s latest drone attack on Odesa in southern Ukraine.

Six of the injured, including a pregnant woman, are in moderate to severe condition. The boy is hospitalized with leg wounds.

The drone struck the ninth floor of a high-rise residential building about 12:40 a.m., burying the slain under rubble. Seven people are still missing.

In the Kharkiv region, a 76-year-old man was killed when a Russian drone struck his home in the Kupyansk district at about 12:10 a.m.

Another drone attack on Kharkiv city destroyed four cars and damaged the windows of at least 10 residential buildings.