Russia-Ukraine strikes kill on both sides after Kryvyi Rih mall attack

Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih as Ukrainian drones hit Krasnodar. The exchange highlighted intensifying cross-border attacks and Ukraine's strained air defences.

In Short

• Ballistic missiles hit Kyiv railway infrastructure, killing one and injuring another
• Zaporizhzhia village and minibus attacks left one dead and three wounded
• Kryvyi Rih shopping centre death toll rose to 16, officials said

Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least two people in Ukraine overnight, while a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Krasnodar region killed two people there, officials said on Saturday. The attacks came a day after a Russian strike on a shopping centre in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih killed 16 people.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one person was killed and another was wounded when ballistic missiles hit railway infrastructure in the capital. Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had struck a locomotive depot.

Moscow's forces have recently stepped up ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv as Ukraine faces a chronic shortage of US-made Patriot air defence interceptors, the only weapon in its arsenal able to bring down such missiles.

Russian drone strikes also killed one person overnight in a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said. Zelenskyy said three people were wounded in an attack on a minibus in the regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia.

In Russia's southern Krasnodar region, authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike killed two children and wounded two adults.

The latest attacks followed Friday's Russian drone strike on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine. Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said early on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 16, while nine people were still missing and 130 others were wounded.

Kryvyi Rih is Zelenskyy's hometown. He described the attack as a double-tap strike, with an initial wave of drones hitting the area and a second wave following as rescue workers responded. He said the fire, which spread across 9,000 square metres, had been put out and rescue efforts were under way.

Kryvyi Rih has been hit multiple times during the four-and-a-half-year all-out war between Russia and Ukraine. One of the deadliest attacks there took place in April 2025, when 20 people were killed, including nine children.

Large-scale Russian strikes have become frequent this summer. Friday's attacks came just 24 hours after Russia launched scores of missiles and drones at Kyiv in a night assault that killed 16 people. The capital has also been hit repeatedly in recent weeks. More than two weeks ago, 17 people were killed in a strike on Kyiv and the surrounding region, and two days before that, another attack on the city killed nine. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 wounded.

At the same time, Ukraine has taken the war onto Russian soil with long-range drone strikes on oil facilities that have led to fuel shortages across Russia. It has also struck warehouses of Wildberries, the country's biggest online retailer. Russian online news outlet Astra reported on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone set an oil refinery on fire in the Samara region. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified industrial facility and at a logistics centre for Ozon, a rival to Wildberries.

The latest round of attacks left casualties on both sides, added to the toll from the Kryvyi Rih shopping centre strike, and underlined the continuing exchange of drone and missile attacks in the war.

With PTI Inputs

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