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At least seven people, including a toddler and a woman and her infant, died in a Russian drone strike Saturday on an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, regional authorities said.
"Rescuers in Odesa have just uncovered the bodies of a mother with a three-month-old baby," Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post on his Telegram channel.
Ukraine's military said its air defenses shot down seven of the eight drones Russia fired at Odesa.
At least eight people were injured. Rescuers continue to sift through the rubble for more people, according to Oleh Kiper, Odesa regional governor.
Ukraine's State Emergencies Service said five people, including a child, were rescued.
"This is impossible to forget. This is impossible to forgive," the service said in a statement, according to Reuters.
At least three more people were killed in separate shelling attacks on the front-line Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West to deliver additional air defense systems.
"More air defense systems and more missiles for air defense systems save lives," he said, noting "Russia continues to fight civilians. ... One of the enemy drones hit a residential building in Odesa. Eighteen apartments were destroyed," he said in a Telegram post. He identified the drones as Iranian Shaheds.
Drone crashes into building
Earlier Saturday, a drone crashed into a 5-story residential building in St. Petersburg, Russia. One hundred people were evacuated. No casualties were reported according to a Russian official.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said two buildings were damaged and residents had been evacuated after what he called an incident with no casualties.
Beglov did not explain the cause or nature of the incident, but residents told Reuters they heard a strange sound, followed by a blast and then a fire on Saturday morning.
Reuters video taken at the scene showed the destroyed facade of a building with blown-out windows, damaged balconies and shattered glass and debris on the ground.
Russian media outlets reported that the incident could have been caused by a downed Ukrainian drone, which was heading toward a nearby fuel depot.
Ukraine's defense ministry did not verify the information.
Ukraine says it downed aircraft
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said Ukraine had downed a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber Saturday.
"The Eastern Air Command confirms the downing of an Su-34 fighter-bomber. Unfortunately, only one," Oleshchuk said in a post on his Telegram channel, where he earlier reported anti-aircraft missiles were deployed against an Su-34 and an Su-35.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Investigation under way
Germany said Saturday it is investigating a purportedly leaked call after Moscow said a recording of German officers showed them discussing weapons for Ukraine and a potential strike by Kyiv on a bridge in Crimea.
A German defense ministry spokesperson said the Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence was probing what appeared to be a case of eavesdropping, and the possibility that the recording had been altered.
During visit to Rome on Saturday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the potential leak "very serious," adding it was "now being clarified very carefully, very intensively and very quickly."
Participants in the call allegedly discussed the possible delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv. Scholz so far has publicly and firmly refused to send such weapons to Ukraine to avoid any military escalation between NATO and Russia.
The officials in the leaked call also allegedly talk about the training of Ukrainian soldiers and assorted possible military targets.
The leaked call was posted on Telegram by Margarita Simonyan, a Russian state TV journalist and the head of Russia Today.
Reuters listened to the 38-minute recording but could not independently confirm its authenticity.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the German parliament, however, told the Handelsblatt newspaper that he considered the reports to be authentic.
The Russian embassy in Berlin did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Saturday about allegations of possible spying.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to journalists on Saturday about "cunning plans of the Bundeswehr [German armed forces], which became apparent due to the publication of this audio recording. This is a blatant self-exposure."
Zelenskyy announced Friday that he and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte signed a security agreement that will provide Kyiv with $2.2 billion in military aid this year.
Zelenskyy announced details of the plan on his social media accounts after the two leaders met and held talks in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city and a frequent target for Russian attacks.
Ukraine warned last month it had received less than a third of the 1 million artillery shells the European Union had promised to deliver and was struggling to hold its defenses.
It withdrew its forces from the eastern town of Avdiivka in February amid difficulty securing ammunition, handing Moscow its first major territorial gain in more than a year.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.