Ukraine-Russia war latest: Eight killed after Kyiv launches hundreds of drones in mass attack

At least eight people in Russian regions overnight and on Sunday, after Kyiv launched at least 635 drones in a mass attack.

Among the targets was a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, regional officials said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it downed 635 Ukrainian drones during the night. Moscow does not typically reveal the total number of projectiles fired by Ukraine.

The acting governor of Russia’s border region of Belgorod, Alexander Shuvayev, said a Ukrainian drone struck an area next to a playground, killing one child and injuring two.

Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that the strike was “another inhumane terrorist act” by Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ukraine’s drones attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, around 800 km (500 miles) from Ukraine’s most advanced military positions, Samara Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. Fedorishchev said there were no casualties and that a fire that broke out as a result of the attack was being put out.

Russian authorities have increased the death toll of the explosion in Moscow’s Balzi Rossi restaurant to five.

Two people died in hospital following the explosion, Radio Liberty’s Russian Service said according to Ukrainska Pravda, after three deaths had originally been reported by Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee.

Another six people are in a serious condition, it said.

But some are willing to take things further than others. For four years, one group has seen plenty of new sights – by driving into an active warzone.

Ukrainian Action, a charity set up after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, has just sent its 500th vehicle full of aid and equipment across Europe to support Ukrainians in need on and off the front line. With Russian airstrikes actively targeting ordinary homes, civilian businesses, and infrastructure facilities with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least 26 people, including four children, in separate attacks this week, Ukraine is a highly volatile place to be.

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The availability of these interceptors is dwindling amid the ongoing conflict involving the US and Israel against Iran, with Mr Trump reportedly stepping back from a recent pledge to grant Ukraine a licence for their production.

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Fragments of a drone shot down by Ukraine ⁠near its Danube river border fell on Romanian national ⁠territory on ​a ⁠farm field near the ⁠village of Periprava without ​causing ⁠any damage, ‌Romania’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

The drone ‌had previously ‌spent 20 minutes in Romanian ⁠air space before flying into Ukraine, the ministry said without specifying its origin. Romanian F-16 fighter ‌jets shot down three ​Russian drones ‌breaching national ⁠airspace over ⁠three consecutive days in ‌late ​July.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has been turning its attention to attacking large warehouses owned by Wildberries.

Wildberries is Russia‘s largest online marketplace. It has been called the country’s equivalent of Amazon, as its business model resembles a mix of Amazon Marketplace, eBay, and Temu.

Founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim, who is now Russia’s richest woman, the company has since become the dominant e-commerce platform in Russia and several neighbouring countries.

Hosting millions of third-party sellers, the platform sells almost everything, from electronics to groceries. The marketplace features clothes, books, cosmetics, toys, appliances, household items, sports gear and much more. There’s an “E-Pharmacy” page and a travel section for booking plane tickets or hotels.

It operates a vast network of warehouses, sorting centres, and logistics hubs across Russia.

In 2021, Kim acquired a small bank and turned it into what now is Wildberries Bank, but that institution has since come under sanctions by the U.K. and the European Union.

Earlier this year, Russia’s Federal Security Service announced that authorities would tighten security around senior military and government officials, after a series of assassination attempts in Russian cities that followed the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

So far, Russian authorities have not drawn any connections between Saturday’s blast and these earlier attacks or the war in Ukraine.

Russia previously said Kyiv was behind a car bombing in Moscow last April that killed Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in Russia’s General Staff.

Ukraine did not publicly claim responsibility.

But Ukraine’s SBU security service earlier said it had organized the killing in December 2024 of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed the Russian military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces.

Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him.

Ukraine officials have claimed the Iranian vessel was carrying components for drones and missiles from Iran to Russia, but Tehran claimed the vessel was “entirely civilian” and was carrying “no military cargo”.

Iran is a major supplier of weapons to Russia with its Shahed drones. In August 2024, Ukraine attacked a cargo vessel in the Caspian Sea, destroying a ship reportedly loaded with Shahed-136 drone components and Iranian munitions.

But former British army officer and weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon believes that Ukraine’s most recent attack on the Caspian Sea is a “message to Trump” first and foremost.

He argued that by executing an attack around 500 miles away from Kyiv, Ukraine is demonstrating its capability and showing the US president how it can help take on Iran.

He told The Independent: “Ukraine is trying to show Trump that the Russians are helping Iran out. Ukraine is demonstrating that they can prevent that and help with Trump’s Iran problem, but the US needs to help Ukraine in return.”

Both teenagers have suffered immensely as a result of Russia’s invasion, recalling to The Independent their grim personal anecdotes including a civilian minibus torn to shreds by Russian gunfire, the kidnapping of family members, and the destruction of their home towns.

Now, for the first time since 2022, the 17-year-olds no longer need fear the sound of a passing aircraft, tucked safely away in the Italian coastal town of Lignano Pineta alongside 30 others, for a camp aimed at alleviating the psychological toll of war for Ukrainian children.

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An EU mission led ​by Italy boarded a tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” on Sunday to verify its nationality and flag registration, Italy’s Defence Ministry said.

It ⁠was not immediately clear whether the vessel had been detained while the checks were carried out.

The ministry said the Toa Payoh, a tanker under EU sanctions that ⁠was sailing under ​the flag ⁠of Cameroon, had been intercepted in the Mediterranean, west of the Italian island ⁠of Pantelleria, while travelling from Benin to Istanbul.

The ship’s ​captain ⁠initially failed to ‌cooperate, prompting a team of Italian military personnel to board the vessel from a helicopter launched by ‌the Thaon di Revel, flagship ‌of the EU’s EUNAVFOR MED Irini operation.

The inspection, carried out with the support of a Greek vessel and a Polish ⁠maritime patrol aircraft, lasted about two hours and was completed safely, the ministry said.

Italian authorities were examining documentation obtained during the inspection.