Russian strikes on Sumy and Odesa kill two, wound nine

Two people died and nine were hurt, including three children, in Russian strikes on Sumy on the evening of September 30, Ukraine's interior ministry said. Rescuers pulled the bodies of a 70-year-old woman and a 74-year-old man from the rubble.

Russian forces hit the city with guided bombs. One bomb landed on the main city cemetery, damaging graves and monuments and shattering the windows of a church there, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration.

A school was also hit while classes were under way. Hryhorov said the building suffered heavy damage. "About 70 children and staff were in the shelter. That's exactly what saved them," he said.

Two private homes in different parts of Sumy were also hit. In the morning, Russian forces struck a shopping centre in the Romny district of Sumy region. The fire there was put out, but emergency crews stayed at the site until late at night.

A strike on a business centre in Odesa left one person hurt. The roof and facade of two buildings were damaged, the blast blew out windows, and walls on the fifth floor partly collapsed. Rescuers put out the fire and stopped it from spreading.

Overnight into October 1, Russian forces also attacked Kyiv, sparking fires and injuring one man.