Ukrainian drones kill three people in Russia's Rostov region, authorities say

Dec ‌18 (Reuters) - Three people, including two crew ‍members ‌of a cargo vessel, were killed in ⁠overnight Ukrainian ‌drone attacks on the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don and the town of Bataysk in ⁠the southern Rostov region, the local governor said ​on Thursday.

The fire was extinguished, Yuri ‌Slyusar wrote on ⁠his Telegram messaging app channel.

Rostov-on-Don head Alexander Skryabin said earlier that a ​leak of oil products had been avoided.

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of deliberately attacking civilian vessels. ​Russian ‍President Vladimir Putinhas ​threatened to "cut Ukraine off from the sea" after Kyiv's attacks damaged three 'shadow fleet' tankers heading to Russia to export its oil earlier this month.

One person was ⁠killed and seven people were injured in the town of ​Bataysk where two private homes caught fire as result of a drone attack, Slyusar also said.

(Reporting by ‌Ronald Popeski, Ksenia Orlova; Editing by Chris Reese, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan)