Ukrainian attacks on Russia killed at least nine people on Sunday, while Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five, according to officials in both countries.
The exchange of strikes comes amid signs both Moscow and Kyiv are increasing the scale and intensity of attacks on each other, nearly four-and-a-half years into their grinding war.
Civilian casualties in Ukraine have soared this year, as Russia has ramped up its use of hard-to-intercept long-range missiles, according to UN data.
Kyiv has meanwhile launched waves of retaliatory strikes on Russia, including on energy facilities and retail warehouses, in an effort to pressure Moscow into negotiations on ending its offensive.
Ukrainian strikes on Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine killed four people earlier Sunday, including a 13-year-old girl near a playground, the region's acting governor Alexander Shuvaev said.
"The 13-year-old girl was gravely wounded. Medics who arrived at the scene took all possible measures to save her, but her injuries were not incompatible with life," he said.
A separate drone attack on Russia's Saratov region bordering Kazakhstan killed two people, while three were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a car in Russia's Udmurtia region – more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the front line, the region's acting governor Olga Abramova said.
"This act is monstrous in its senselessness. These people were definitely not a military target," she said.
In Ukraine, Russian strikes killed two people in the eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, and at least one person each in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to regional authorities.
A separate Russian strike destroyed a postal terminal in the northern Kharkiv region, killing a postal worker, the mail operator Nova Poshta said.
US-led talks on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II have been effectively frozen since February, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians.
(the broadcaster with AFP)
Ukrainian drone strikes overnight into Sunday killed at least five people across Russia, also hitting industrial sites and a further warehouse belonging to Russia’s e-commerce giant Wildberries, local officials said.
Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, is sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon. In under two weeks, Ukraine has struck over a dozen of the retailer’s depots, part of Kyiv’s aerial campaign aimed at undermining Moscow's war effort, hurting its economy and making people feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Read moreWildberries: 'Russia's Amazon' targeted by Ukraine
Russian air defences overnight shot down 635 Ukrainian drones, including over occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. The ministry did not say how many were launched or struck targets.
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Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 133 drones during the night, 24 of which hit targets, according to the Ukrainian air force. Later on Sunday, separate Russian attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv killed at least two people, according to local officials.
Ukrainian drones targeted a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the Russian-Ukrainian border, according to local Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. He said a fire had broken out but there were no casualties.
Kyiv’s campaign against Wildberries first hit the company's sites in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the Tambov region on July 18. Strikes followed on facilities across western and southern Russia, as well as Russian-held Crimea. At least nine people have been killed and scores wounded.
Two people were killed as a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the Saratov region east of Samara, local Governor Roman Busargin said.
He added that the strikes damaged civil infrastructure in Engels, where the deaths took place, and the regional capital, Saratov.
Both cities have been frequent targets for Ukrainian attacks in recent years. Engels hosts a military airbase, while Saratov is home to a large oil refinery.
Read moreRussia-Ukraine war: First half of 2026 sees sharp rise in civilian casualties
In Russia’s Bashkortostan region further north, local Governor Radiy Khabirov said that air defence had repelled a large-scale drone strike on “industrial facilities” in the city of Ufa. He did not specify what exactly was struck, but said that a blaze was being put out.
In the Udmurt Republic further northwest, three civilians died and two more were wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike, according to acting regional head Olga Abramova.
Abramova said air defences shot down two Ukrainian drones and “prevented an attempted attack” by Kyiv. She said a civilian car was damaged in the strike, without clarifying if drone debris was the cause.
In Ukraine, one person died on Sunday as a Russian guided bomb struck a residential building in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to local administration head Ivan Fedorov. Another attack on Sunday killed one person and set fire to a postal terminal on the outskirts of Kharkiv, in the northwest, said regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov.
(the broadcaster with AP)
