Russian strikes on Southern Ukraine claim three lives

Russian shelling and drone attacks killed three people and wounded eight others in southern Ukraine on Monday, officials said, as Kyiv warned Moscow was pounding civilian infrastructure ahead of winter.

Two women were killed when a Russian drone struck a car in the southern Kherson region, while Russian shelling on the port of Odesa left one dead and eight wounded, authorities said.

The Odesa attack also damaged two civilian ships, including a Palau-flagged cargo vessel that was struck "for the second time" in two weeks, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram.

The attack damaged port infrastructure, including a grain warehouse, he added.

In the southern Kherson region, two women aged 72 and 56 were killed when Russia "attacked a civilian car with a drone," governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

Russia has targeted southern Ukraine throughout the war, hitting boats and grain silos along its coast in what Kyiv says is an illegal attempt to destroy its export capacity.

Ukraine was one of the world's largest grainn exporters before Russia's February 2022 invasion, but repeated attacks on its port and storage facilities have severely curbed its output.

"The Russians are trying not only to weaken Ukraine's economy, especially on the eve of winter, but also to undermine global food security," Kyiv's foreign minister Andriy Sybiga told an online meeting with EU counterparts on Monday.