At least three people have been killed and more than 20 have been injured in Russian strikes on Ukraine on Friday, authorities said.
Two people died and five were left injured in an attack on Odesa in southern Ukraine, Serhii Lysak, the head of the city military administration, reported. He added that a residential building and a number of cars were also damaged.
In Zaporizhzhia Oblast, another person was reportedly killed after a strike on an industrial facility in the Kosmichny district.
A strike also hit a residential block in the area, injuring nine people, per local authorities.
"As a result of the enemy attack, flats on three floors were damaged. Fires broke out in flats on the second and third floors, and cars in the courtyard also caught fire," Mykhailo Semikin, the acting head of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, wrote in a post on Telegram.
A further seven people, including children, were injured in Russian strikes on the northeastern Kharkiv region, according to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office.
"According to the investigation, at around 4 am on 13 November, the Russian military attacked the village of Malynivka in the Chuhuiv district with a drone," it said. "Houses were destroyed and damaged. Seven people were injured: three women, two men and two boys aged 16 and 11."
Ukraine strikes Russia
For their part, Ukrainian forces fired back overnight, with reported attacks on Russia's Samara and Volgograd regions.
Four people were killed in a drone attack on an industrial facility in Samara Oblast, and another four were killed in a strike on Volgograd, per local authorities.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Friday that the Volgograd oil refinery had been targeted overnight.
"A fire broke out on the plant’s premises. The AVT-1, AVT-3, AVT-5 and AVT-6 primary oil refining units, a hydrotreating unit, the loading and unloading jetty and six storage tanks, each with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres, were hit," it reported, adding that the facility produces petrol, diesel and aviation fuel.
Video footage circulating on social media appears to show a major fire at the refinery.
Zelenskyy meets with US envoys
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrapped up a meeting with US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Ireland on Thursday. The American duo arrived following a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
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Renewed diplomatic efforts this week have seen Kyiv and Moscow agree to the "largest prisoner exchange" since the start of the war and may have paved the way for Europe to have a say in future Ukraine peace negotiations.
