Russia and Ukraine trade more deadly strikes
Ukraine’s latest offensive launched a coordinated salvo of drones and missiles across Russian heartland, striking residential areas, supply hubs, and civilian infrastructure. The on‑ground toll was grim: nine civilians lost their lives and 23, including a child, sustained injuries in Russia, according to local administrative reports.
In the Belgorod region, eight people were killed in the first 24 hours of the assault, and a woman tragically died at night in Astrakhan. Ukrainian drone strikes also decimated two families in Sumy and caused two more deaths in Donetsk.
The latest onslaught came a night after Russia’s “largest-scale” attack of the year, which killed seven people and wounded more than 39. Both sides accuse the other of targeting civilian networks – with Ukraine claiming that drones weaponize logistics chains such as Wildberries across Russia, and Russia pointing to Ukrainian strikes on markets, offices, and residential buildings.
Wildberries, Russia’s answer to Amazon, has already suffered up to 70 per cent of its distribution centres disabled by Ukrainian sorties. The Ukrainian defense ministry says the city of Kramatorsk and the historic market district in Kyiv were hit, their blaze still visible from the street.
In the east, an industrial facility in Astrakhan was targeted, but managed to survive. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s drone raids on the Black Sea port of Odesa damaged a civilian vessel and left four wounded. The city’s Pochayna district saw a book market reduced to smoldering ruin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reports that the last week’s strikes spanned 13 regions, deploying roughly 1,550 attack drones, 1,560 guided bombs, and 62 missiles. Russia’s counter‑attacks on energy infrastructure have increased - Naftogaz confirmed 13 hit events in the past week.
Both Russia and Ukraine maintain that they avoid civilian targets, yet casualty patterns reveal the tragic reality that geography and logistics have become collateral warfare.
