A 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son were killed on Friday when Russian jet-powered drones struck their home in northern Ukraine. The attack, which occurred in the Sumy region, also left four other individuals wounded, including the boy’s father and grandmother, who were hospitalized with severe burns according to the regional military administration chief, Oleh Hryhorov. This incident is part of a broader escalation in hostilities that has seen civilian casualties reach alarming levels.
The strike came just one day after the United Nations announced that July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the weeks following the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion more than four years ago. According to the U.N. monitoring mission in Kyiv, at least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 were wounded last month. This figure represents a 70% increase compared to July of last year and a 30% rise from June of this year. Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv, noted that the trend of increasing civilian casualties accelerated sharply in July, marking the highest number of documented civilian casualties in a single month since March 2022. Since the invasion began on February 24, 2022, U.N. monitors estimate that at least 16,874 civilians have been killed, including 820 children, and 51,273 have been wounded, including 3,126 children.
The violence extended across multiple fronts on Friday. In the eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb demolished six floors of a 10-story apartment block, killing one person and wounding 16 others, as reported by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy stated that Russian forces are launching approximately 220 glide bombs every day against settlements near the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine. These forces often utilize 3,000-pound (1,300-kilo) glide bombs, along with artillery, missiles, and drones, to crush settlements before sending in infantry units to attack the exposed defenders. This tactic has rendered many towns and villages uninhabitable. In total, Russia attacked 12 Ukrainian regions overnight, wounding dozens of people.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed its forces struck two tugboats in the Black Sea that were escorting cargo ships carrying Western weapons for Ukraine. Additionally, the ministry stated that its drones hit a railway station at Ukraine’s southern Izmail port, alleging the site is used for transporting military cargo and fuel for the Ukrainian armed forces.
In response, Ukrainian forces continued their long-range strike campaign against Russian infrastructure. A drone strike hit the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Ukraine, starting a brief fire, according to regional governor Alexander Drozdenko. Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas export terminals and has been a frequent target of Ukrainian drone attacks this summer. Furthermore, an attack on the premises of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, damaged a wall of a warehouse in the Tver region. The company reported “insignificant damage” and stated that stored goods were not affected. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that its air defenses intercepted 553 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the waters of the Azov and the Black seas.
The conflict also impacted international airspace. NATO fighter jets, including Italian Eurofighter jets, shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace in the early hours of Friday. NATO spokesperson Allison Hart confirmed that two Turkish fighter jets were also deployed. Latvian authorities stated the drone entered the country as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare, though its exact origin was not confirmed. Residents in five municipalities in eastern Latvia were warned to take shelter. Additionally, the Romanian Defense Ministry reported that a drone crashed in woodland in eastern Tulcea County, just 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Military radars did not detect the drone because it was flying at a very low altitude.
