Overnight Strikes Kill 12 as Russia-Ukraine War Escalates

Overnight strikes killed 12 people across Russia and Ukraine, authorities said on Sunday, as waves of drones and missiles hit civilian areas and infrastructure on both sides.

Fighting along parts of the front has been largely at a standstill and peace talks have stalled, while both countries have stepped up long-range attacks deep behind enemy lines, pushing the civilian death toll to its highest level since the early months of the war in 2022.

Dead In Russia

In Russia’s southern Rostov region, Ukrainian drones killed five people in a residential area, regional governor Yuri Slusar said. Two other people were reported killed in strikes in the Belgorod and Moscow regions.

Moscow said it countered the assault with large-scale air defences. The Russian defence ministry stated that 822 drones were intercepted across the country overnight.

Russian officials also described the attacks as among the largest drone strikes in recent memory.

Strike Hits Kryvyi Rih

In Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles struck ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, killing two people and wounding 14, according to Ukrainian officials.

The company said the strike forced it to partially halt operations after damage to core production facilities. Further attacks were reported elsewhere: two people were killed in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, and one person was reported dead in the border region of Sumy.

In Kyiv, an outdoor book market at Pochaina was hit. Bookseller Dmytro Semenukha said all four of his stalls burned down during the raid.

Kyiv Warns Of Civilian Infrastructure Attacks

In an overnight statement, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian ballistic missiles were used to target civilian infrastructure wherever they could be reached.

He renewed an appeal to allies for more air defences, saying that over the previous week Ukrainian cities were hit by more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles.

Zelensky also said European countries should not allow interceptors to remain unused in storage, arguing that Russia’s use of harder-to-intercept ballistic missiles risks further damage to civilian targets across Europe. Kyiv has recently renewed claims that Moscow is receiving missiles and troops from North Korea.

Ukraine’s attacks have increasingly focused on facilities it says support Russia’s war effort, including warehouses linked to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer. Zelensky said such strikes, along with attacks on oil refineries, aim to undermine Russia’s war economy.

Ukraine said another Wildberries warehouse near Moscow was set ablaze overnight. Since mid-July, it has claimed strikes on about 20 warehouses and related buildings connected to the company.

Spillover Into Europe

The drone war has also affected countries bordering the conflict. Romania’s defence ministry said a Spanish F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that entered Romanian airspace near borders with Ukraine and Moldova after the overnight raid.

NATO said on Friday that fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace, the second such incident in a week, according to Latvia’s defence ministry.

Civilian Toll

The United Nations reported that 437 civilians were killed in Ukraine in July, the highest monthly toll since May 2022. Russian authorities separately reported that 79 civilians were killed on their side in July, an increase from the previous month.

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16 August 2026

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