KYIV, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova in the southern region of Odesa, killing two people, Ukrainian and Moldovan officials said on Wednesday, part of Moscow's push to target trade and logistics routes and cause economic damage.
Russian forces also targeted Kyiv again overnight and into Wednesday with jet-powered drones, causing multiple fires and disrupting business operations and schools, Ukrainian officials said. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nine
people were injured in the attacks on the capital.
Two civilians were killed and three wounded in the attack on the Starokozache border crossing in southwest Ukraine, Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
The checkpoint, about 1 km from Moldovan territory, is used every day by thousands of people and hundreds of cars, and Moldovan officials said passenger and vehicle traffic was halted by the attack.
"Most likely, Russia wants to disrupt logistics routes," Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian border guards, told national TV.
Russia has struck five border crossings in recent weeks, the Ukrainian border guards said — four on the border with Moldova and one on its border with Romania, a NATO member.
It is a worrying development for Kyiv, which has become more reliant on land routes for its exports as Russian attacks on its Black Sea ports have massively disrupted maritime exports. In turn, Ukraine has attacked Russian refineries, oil terminals and commercial warehouses with drones, often deep inside Russia.
Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tofan said Russian drone incursions into his country's airspace had increased significantly.
"In August alone, 17 drones fell — as many as during all of 2025," Tofan said in a post on X. "Russia’s inhuman war against Ukraine is putting our citizens at growing risk."
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had hit a naval base, an oil terminal, military port facilities and warships carrying missiles in Russia's Novorossiysk, and he reiterated his plea for more international pressure on Moscow.
"A response is needed – Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences," Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
"The aggression must be stopped here and now, before it spreads any further."
Russia resumed its near-constant air attacks on Kyiv on Tuesday after a brief halt during the visit to Moscow and Kyiv of U.S. President Donald Trump's peace negotiators.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash in Kyiv, Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk, Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Gareth Jones)
