Doha: Three people were killed and several others were injured in Russian drone strikes on the Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Mykolaiv and Odesa, Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday. Officials said the attacks targeted the two ports as Russia stepped up pressure on Ukraine's key maritime trade routes. The strikes also damaged three foreign-flagged civilian vessels.

According to Qatar News Agency, two people were killed aboard a foreign-flagged ship during a morning strike in Mykolaiv, while a third person died in a separate attack on Odesa, Ukraine's largest port on the Black Sea, officials said. Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said in a post on social media that a subsequent Russian strike hit a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel at a port in the Odesa region, damaging the ship, sparking a fire and injuring four of its 17 crew members. All crew members were safely evacuated, he said.

Separately, Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, said Ukrainian forces struck 12 Russian vessels in the Black Sea on Friday, bringing the total number of Russian ships targeted in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov this month to 159. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces had targeted 24 vessels used by the Ukrainian military over the past week and had also struck facilities at the ports of Odesa and Chornomorsk.

Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine's commercial ports in recent weeks, while Kyiv has stepped up efforts to disrupt Russian military logistics and isolate the Crimean Peninsula.