Russian and Ukrainian Strikes Kill 14 Amid Escalation of Long-Range Attacks

Russian and Ukrainian strikes have killed at least 14 people on both sides of the conflict, as Kyiv and Moscow escalate long-range attacks far beyond the front line.

Swarms of drones launched overnight into Sunday by Ukraine towards targets in multiple Russian regions killed at least nine people, despite Russia saying it successfully shot down 635 drones.

The deaths announced by regional governors included three killed by a drone strike on a car in the Udmurtia region, more than 1,300km (800 miles) beyond the Ukrainian front line.

“This act is monstrous in its senselessness. These people were definitely not a military target,” acting Governor Olga Abramova said on Telegram.

In the Saratov region, civilian infrastructure was hit in the cities of Saratov and Engels, and two people were killed when a residential building in Engels was struck, Governor Roman Busargin said.

Both Saratov city, which hosts a major oil refinery, and Engels, home of a strategic bomber airbase, have come under repeated Ukrainian attack in recent years.

Ukraine’s military said it had attacked ⁠the Saratov refinery and the Engels airbase, sparking fires at both facilities. It said its forces had also struck an oil ⁠depot in the western Kaluga region.

In the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, four people were killed, including a 13-year-old girl near a playground, the region’s acting Governor Alexander Shuvaev said.

Ukrainian drones also attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, around 800km (500 miles) from Ukraine’s most advanced military ⁠positions, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. He said there were no casualties and that a fire that had broken out as a result of the attack was being put out.

Ukrainian forces have been striking deeper inside Russia as they expand strikes on economic and energy targets, ‌hoping to undermine Moscow’s ability to wage its more than four-year-old war in Ukraine.

They have attacked about a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 in a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a linchpin of the consumer economy often described as Russia’s answer to Amazon.

Russian attacks on Ukraine

In Ukraine, at least five people were killed on Sunday.

One person died as a Russian guided bomb struck a residential building in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov. Another attack killed one person and set fire to a postal terminal on the outskirts of Kharkiv, in the northwest, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

Russian strikes also killed two people in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region and one person in the southern Kherson region, regional authorities said.

Both sides are increasingly using long-range missiles and drones to attack each other far beyond the front lines.

Data compiled by AFP from Ukrainian Air Force reports revealed that Russia fired a record 376 missiles at Ukraine in July, more than double the total launched in June, with most targeted at Kyiv.

The intensified ballistic campaign killed more than 170 civilians between July 1 and July 27, according to United Nations figures, culminating in an overnight barrage on Friday that killed at least nine people and wounded 33 in the Ukrainian capital.

During that attack, Russia launched 220 aerial weapons, including 35 missiles, 27 of them ballistic, and 185 drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said air defence units intercepted 154 drones but only one ballistic missile, because of a critical shortage of US-supplied Patriot interceptor missiles.