At least 18 people, including five children, have been wounded IN a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, regional governor Vitaliy Kim said.

A three-storey residential building was hit in the Mykolaiv city center early on Thursday morning, Kim added.

A spokesman for the Odessa regional military administration, Serhiy Prachuk said that two people were transported to the hospital after a strike in Odessa, which caused damage to a building and resulted in a fire.

"There is news of another strike outside the city," he added.

Odessa ports were major transit centers for exporting grains from Ukraine to international markets before Moscow's earlier announcement this week of its withdrawal from an agreement that granted a safe passage for cargo ships in the Black Sea.

Source: Qatar News Agency