Ukraine, Russia exchange deadly strikes; at least 14 killed

Ukraine and Russia traded some of the deadliest cross-border attacks in recent months on Sunday, with officials reporting at least nine deaths in Russia and five in Ukraine, underscoring an intensifying conflict nearly four-and-a-half years into the war.

The latest wave of strikes reflects an escalation in both the scale and reach of attacks. The UN says civilian casualties in Ukraine have surged this year as Russia increasingly deploys long-range missiles that are difficult to intercept. Kyiv, meanwhile, has expanded retaliatory drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and logistics hubs in an effort to increase pressure on Moscow.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, four people, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed in a strike near a playground, according to acting governor Alexander Shuvayev. Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, condemned the attack as a deliberate act of terror.

Elsewhere, drone strikes killed two people in the Saratov region after a residential building in Engels, home to a key Russian military airbase, was hit. Ukraine said it targeted the Engels airbase, an oil refinery in Saratov, and an oil depot in the Kaluga region, causing fires. In Russia’s Udmurtia region, more than 1,000 km from the front line, a drone strike on a car killed three people, with regional authorities saying the victims were civilians.

Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed it intercepted 635 Ukrainian drones overnight. One of the targets hit was a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, in the Samara region. Authorities said the resulting fire was quickly contained and no casualties were reported. Ukrainian forces have repeatedly targeted Wildberries facilities in recent weeks, aiming to disrupt the company’s operations.

In Bashkortostan, air defences repelled a large-scale drone assault on industrial sites, though one drone struck an industrial area near the regional capital, Ufa.

Ukraine also came under heavy Russian bombardment. Russian strikes killed two people in the Dnipropetrovsk region and one person each in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions. In Zaporizhzhia city, glide bombs killed one person and injured 21 others. A separate strike destroyed a Nova Poshta postal terminal in the Kharkiv region, killing a postal worker.

Russia also said it struck military infrastructure and cargo vessels in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Mykolaiv.

Efforts to end the war through US-led negotiations have remained stalled since February, when US and Israeli strikes on Iran shifted diplomatic focus. Both Moscow and Kyiv continue to deny deliberately targeting civilians despite mounting casualties on both sides.