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Drones and missiles trade
Russia carried out a wave of airstrikes on Ukraine overnight, killing two people at a steel plant in Kryvyi Rih and injuring 14 others, while Kyiv launched a heavy drone attack on the Moscow region that killed one person and set ablaze a warehouse used by Russia's leading e-commerce retailer.
“killing two people at a steel plant, and Kyiv launched a heavy drone attack on the Moscow region”
In Kyiv early on Sunday, a Russian missile strike caused fires in at least two districts of the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, and the city's military administration said three people were injured.
Tymur Tkachenko, the Kyiv region's governor, said three others, including a child, were injured in drone attacks across the region, as Russia also struck Ukraine's largest grain export port on the River Danube near the Romanian border last week.
Romania said an F-18 fighter on a NATO air policing mission shot down a drone that breached its airspace, and Reuters reported that the drone appeared to be Russian, with NATO saying it entered from Moldova.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it had downed 822 Ukrainian drones throughout the country in the latest attacks, while Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said an 83-year-old man was killed in what he described as one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow region since the start of the conflict.
Officials frame escalation
Ukraine’s drone barrage targeting Moscow killed at least one person and wounded three, a local official said, as Russia’s Ministry of Defence reported destroying 822 drones across the country overnight.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote that the city was targeted with 600 drones and that “201 drones were destroyed in Moscow region,” while Andrei Vorobyov said an 83-year-old man was killed when a drone hit a private home in the Podolsk area.
Defence and foreign policy analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told Al Jazeera that the targeting of capital cities suggests an escalation in the war, adding that Ukraine had managed to bypass air defences in the Moscow region, which he said has the “best and most dense antiair defences in the entirety of Russia”.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy wrote that “Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” as CBS News reported fires in the Ukrainian capital and injuries from strikes early Sunday.
Romania’s Ministry of National Defence reported that a Spanish F-18 jet shot down a drone breaching its airspace, and NATO’s military headquarters spokesman Martin O’Donnell said the alliance was prepared to defend itself.
What’s at risk next
The strikes and counterstrikes centered on industrial and logistical targets, with Reuters reporting that ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih said key production facilities in the power generation and blast furnace sectors were damaged and the plant’s production processes were partially halted.
“partially halted”
Ukraine’s attacks on Russian economic infrastructure also included the Wildberries warehouse in Podolsk, where Reuters filmed a large plume of smoke about 45 km (28 miles) south of Moscow after the drone attack, and CBS News said the blaze was at a Wildberries warehouse in Podolsk.
Ukraine’s long-range campaign was also reflected in reports that Kyiv attacked Russia’s Samara industrial site, with Zelenskyy saying the Progress Center in Samara was hit and that “Flamingo missiles were used,” while ABC News said the strike was intended to make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion.
On the Ukrainian side, Zelenskyy wrote that a Russian missile attack on Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others, and he also said one more person had been killed in Sumy, as CBS News reported fires across Kyiv and injuries from missile and drone strikes.
As the aerial exchange continued, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission figures cited by Al Jazeera said July 2023 was the bloodiest month for civilians in Ukraine since May 2022, with 437 people killed and 2,610 others injured, underscoring the civilian toll described in the reporting.
