Ukraine's Odessa again attacked by Iranian drones

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine said on Sunday that the southern port city of Odessa was attacked by Iranian-made drones overnight, two days after a Russian attack with such a weapon killed two civilians.

"Odessa was attacked again by enemy kamikaze drones," said the Ukrainian army's Operational Command South.

"The enemy hit the administrative building in the city centre three times," it said in a Facebook message.

“One drone was shot down by [Ukrainian] air defence forces. No casualties [were] recorded,” it said.

“These were Iranian drones,” a Ukrainian South Command spokeswoman, Natalya Gumenyuk, later told AFP.

The strikes come two days after two civilians were reportedly killed in Odessa on Friday in a Russian attack with an Iranian-made drone.

Four Iranian-made drones were shot down in the south of the country Friday, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.

Kyiv said later it decided to reduce Iran’s diplomatic presence in Ukraine over its supply of drones to Russia.

“In response to such an unfriendly act, the Ukrainian side decided to deprive the ambassador of Iran in Ukraine of accreditation, as well as to significantly reduce the number of diplomatic personnel of the Iranian embassy in Kyiv,” said Ukraine’s foreign ministry.

A foreign ministry official told AFP that the move amounted to expulsion as the ambassador was not in Ukraine and therefore could not be expelled.

“The use of Iranian-made weapons by Russian troops... are steps taken by Iran against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state, as well as against the life and health of Ukrainian citizens,” a spokesman for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sergii Nykyforov, said on Friday.