Ukrainian drone attacks kill eight in response to Russian missiles

Ukrainian strikes target Russian oil hubs and high-rises as Zelenskyy warns of critical Patriot interceptor shortages.

Swarms of drones launched overnight by Ukraine towards targets in multiple Russian regions have killed at least eight people, despite Russia saying it successfully shot down ۶۳۵.

The deaths announced by regional governors on Sunday included three killed by a drone strike on a car in the Udmurtia region, more than ۱,۳۰۰ kilometres (۸۰۰ miles) beyond the Ukrainian front line.

“This act is monstrous in its senselessness. These people were definitely not a military target,” acting Governor Olga Abramova said on Telegram.

In the Saratov region, civilian infrastructure was hit in the cities of Saratov and Engels, and two people were killed when a residential building in Engels was struck, Governor Roman Busargin said.

Both Saratov city, which hosts a major oil refinery, and Engels, home of a strategic bomber airbase, have come under repeated Ukrainian attack in recent years.

Ukraine’s military said it had attacked ⁠the Saratov refinery and the Engels airbase, sparking fires at both facilities. It said its forces had also struck an oil ⁠depot in the western Kaluga region.

In the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, three people were killed and five wounded in Ukrainian strikes, the local task ‌force reported.

Ukrainian drones also attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, around ۸۰۰ km (۵۰۰ miles) from Ukraine’s most advanced military ⁠positions, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. He said there were no casualties and that a fire that had broken out as a result of the attack was being put out.

Ukrainian forces have been striking deeper inside Russia as they expand strikes on economic and energy targets, ‌hoping to undermine Moscow’s ability to wage its more than four-year-old war in Ukraine.

They have attacked about a dozen Wildberries sites since July ۱۸ in a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a linchpin of the consumer economy often described as Russia’s answer to Amazon.

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, regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov said.

Both sides are increasingly using long-range missiles and drones to attack each other far beyond the front lines.

Data compiled by AFP from Ukrainian Air Force reports revealed that Russia fired a record ۳۷۶ missiles at Ukraine in July, more than double the total launched in June, with most targeted at Kyiv.

The intensified ballistic campaign killed more than ۱۷۰ civilians between July ۱ and July ۲۷ according to UN figures, culminating in an overnight barrage on Friday that killed at least nine people and wounded ۳۳ in the Ukrainian capital.

During that attack, Russia launched ۲۲۰ aerial weapons, including ۳۵ missiles, ۲۷ of them ballistic, and ۱۸۵ drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said air defence units intercepted ۱۵۴ drones but only one ballistic missile, because of a critical shortage of US-supplied Patriot interceptor missiles.