Russia, Ukraine trade 750 drone strikes in deadly overnight barrage

A Russian drone strike on a residential high-rise in Marhanets, Dnipropetrovsk region, killed a three-month-old baby and injured 11 others overnight into Saturday, as both sides exchanged nearly 750 drone attacks in one of the war's most intense nights of aerial warfare.

Deadly Night Across Ukraine

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed that the strike on the multi-story building left seven people hospitalized in serious condition, with two children aged five and 12 among the wounded. The attack was part of a broader overnight barrage in which Russia launched 152 drones and other unmanned aerial targets across Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Air Force, which said air defenses destroyed or suppressed 127 of them.aa+1

Elsewhere, five people were injured in Zaporizhzhia after Russian drones struck a shopping center and an industrial facility, while in Odesa, strikes hit a shoe factory, damaging warehouses and causing fires, though no casualties were reported there. The previous day, a Russian drone strike in the Sumy region killed a 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son at their home.pbs+1

Civilian Casualties at Wartime High

The attacks come as the United Nations confirmed that July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the early weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion. At least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 wounded last month — a 30% increase from June and 70% higher than July 2025.eaworldview+1

"Every month this year the number of killed and injured civilians has increased. That trend accelerated sharply in July," said Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Friday that Moscow plans to intensify strikes further, saying Russia would "use much harsher methods to destroy everything that feeds Kyiv's war machine from the West."pbs

Ukraine Strikes Deep Into Russia

Ukraine responded with its own long-range campaign. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses intercepted 598 Ukrainian drones overnight across 19 regions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Flamingo cruise missiles struck the JSC Rocket and Space Center Progress in Samara — one of Roscosmos' key spacecraft manufacturing facilities, located roughly 920 kilometers from the front line — as well as the Savasleyka air base in Nizhny Novgorod region.aa+1

Ukraine's drone campaign also suspended crude oil exports from Russia's Sheskharis terminal at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on Friday, according to three sources familiar with the matter, disrupting a facility that handles around 700,000 barrels per day.eaworldview

Both sides continue to deny deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, maintaining their strikes are directed at military-linked targets.