Ukraine launched a massive wave of drones at several Russian regions overnight and into Sunday morning, killing at least 8 people, according to local officials.
Three people died when a drone struck a car in the Udmurtia region, more than 1,300 kilometers from the front line in Ukraine. Acting Governor Olga Abramova called the incident “brutal and senseless,” noting the victims “were certainly not military targets.”
In the Saratov region, civilian infrastructure in the cities of Saratov and Engels was hit, with 2 people killed when a drone struck a residential building in Engels. Governor Roman Busargin confirmed the report.
Ukraine’s military said it attacked the Saratov oil refinery and the Engels air base, setting both ablaze. Ukrainian officials also said their forces hit an oil depot in the western Kaluga region. In the border region of Belgorod, 3 people were killed and 5 injured in drone strikes.
Another drone hit a warehouse of the e-commerce platform Wildberries in the Samara region, about 800 kilometers from the front line. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said there were no casualties and that firefighters were working to extinguish the flames.
Since mid-July, Ukraine has struck about 12 Wildberries facilities, a key cog in the consumer economy often described as “Russia’s Amazon.” The campaign is part of Ukraine’s effort to expand attacks on economic and energy targets deep inside Russian territory, cutting off resources for the war that has lasted more than four years.
On the Ukrainian side, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed when a Russian guided bomb hit a residential building, according to the head of the local military administration, Ivan Fedorov. In Kharkiv, another attack killed one person and sparked a fire at a suburban post office.
Both sides have increasingly used missiles and drones to strike deep into each other’s rear areas. According to AFP data compiled from Ukrainian air force reports, Russia launched a record 376 missiles at Ukraine in July, double the number in June, mainly targeting Kyiv. The United Nations says more than 170 civilians were killed between July 1 and July 27.
On the night of July 26, Russia launched 220 weapons, including 35 missiles—27 of them ballistic—along with 185 drones. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s air defense systems intercepted 154 drones but shot down only one ballistic missile due to a severe shortage of US-supplied Patriot interceptor missiles.
