KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian drone attack before dawn on Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa wounded 14 people, including two children, authorities said Monday, in the latest barrage of civilian areas that have been a hallmark of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Moscow-installed Gov. Vladimir Saldo said Monday. A man and a woman in their 70s died in the village of Dnipriany, he said.
In Odesa, drones hit residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, said Serhii Lysak, the head of the city’s administration. Russia has repeatedly targeted Odesa, a key Black Sea port for Ukraine, since Moscow launched the war more than four years ago on Feb. 24, 2022.
Five of the wounded, most of them with shrapnel wounds, were hospitalized, according to Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia has fired approximately 1,900 attack drones, nearly 1,400 powerful guided aerial bombs and around 60 missiles of various types at Ukraine over the past week.
Ukraine’s wartime development of cutting-edge military technology means that it's intercepting more than 90% of the drones that Russia launches, Zelenskyy said in an X post. However, Ukraine needs more American-made Patriot air defense missiles, which are able to shoot down Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has recently been helping Middle Eastern and Gulf region countries, which are countering attacks on their territory by Iranian drones, with know-how during the Iran war.
Norway is the latest European country to enter into a joint drone manufacturing agreement with Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Monday.
In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his government plans a “drone armada” with Ukraine’s help, to defend both itself and Europe.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, on a visit to Warsaw, said that Ukraine has evolved from being a recipient of foreign military aid to a country that can offer state of the art military solutions.
“We are able to destroy tanks, destroy expensive systems and drones, it is our reality,” she said, according to the Polish press agency PAP. “A number of the systems that we’re using are produced in Ukraine. I think we have made a big leap here.”
Zelenskyy noted a recent raft of good news for Ukraine: NATO partners, excluding the United States, have contributed to a financial arrangement to buy American weapons, the European Union has approved a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan to Ukraine, and the EU intends to place more sanctions on Moscow.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been assailing oil terminals and refineries deep inside Russia with long-range drones and missiles, aiming to disrupt Moscow’s economy.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday it has seen geolocated evidence that Ukrainian forces conducted at least 10 strikes against Russian oil and gas infrastructure in the past two weeks.
Claudia Ciobanu contributed to this report from Warsaw, Poland.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A rescue worker walks inside apartments destroyed by a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, April 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Shtekel)
A person walks near residential houses damaged by a Russian strike in Odesa, Ukraine, Monday, April 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Shtekel)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Supreme Court was hearing arguments Monday on a Republican challenge to a congressional redistricting plan approved by voters last week that could help Democrats win as many as four additional U.S. House seats.
The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week's statewide vote meaningless.
The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in a November election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the U.S. House.
President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their favor last year in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter approval last week of Virginia's new map.
Next up is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has included congressional redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature beginning Tuesday.
On Sunday, Trump said he was in favor of the Florida attempt and criticized the Virginia amendment that was pushed by Democrats.
“It’s a very bad thing for our country. Very, very bad,” he told Fox News Channel’s "The Sunday Briefing."
So far, the two major parties have battled to a near draw. Republicans think they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they could win as many as 10 additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But legal challenges remain in both Virginia and Missouri.
Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts, which narrowly won voter approval last Tuesday, could give Democrats an improved chance to win 10 districts.
At issue before the state Supreme Court is whether those districts should be invalidated because of the process used by lawmakers.
Because the state's redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose a new constitutional amendment to redraw districts themselves. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place an amendment on the ballot.
In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and that the state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.
The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurley's order on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case. Republicans have filed at least two additional legal challenges, which also are winding their way through the courts.
Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed contributed.
A poster on the Virginia redistricting referendum is seen during voting at Mason Square, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Signs are seen outside Fairfax Government Center during the Virginia redistricting referendum, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Fairfax, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
