KYIV (Reuters) -- Russia launched one of its largest airstrikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa in attacks that killed at least three people, officials said on Tuesday.
The overnight strikes followed Russia’s biggest drone assault of the war on Ukraine on Monday and were part of intensified bombardments in what Moscow says is retaliation for attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russia.
Loud explosions shook Kyiv and blasts and fires lit up the sky in the early hours of Tuesday morning, leaving palls of heavy smoke over the city, Reuters witnesses said. Authorities deployed two firefighting helicopters to douse flames.
One person died in the attack on Kyiv, city authorities said.
At least four people were treated in hospital after seven of the capital’s 10 districts were hit, city officials said.
“Today was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. 
In the southern port of Odesa, an overnight drone attack hit an emergency medical building, a maternity ward and residential buildings, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
Two men were killed in that attack but patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, he said.
Natalia Kovalenko, 34, who five days ago also gave birth to a girl, said she was hoping for an end to the war. “If we don’t have hope, then no one will be giving birth,” she said.
Both sides deny targeting civilians but thousands of civilians have been killed in Europe’s worst conflict since World War Two, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Russia’s defense ministry confirmed that its forces had attacked military targets in Kyiv with high-precision weapons and drones overnight, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported.
Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to information released by the military.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 315 drones across the country, of which 277 were downed. All seven missiles launched by Russia were also brought down, it said.
Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv’s strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores.
Over the past week, Russia has launched 1,451 drones and 78 missiles to attack Ukraine, according to Ukrainian air force data.