Firefighters work at a site of a book market hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, Ukraine on Sunday.Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia Sunday, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war.
Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones increasingly targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummelled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant and bringing the war home to the Russian public nearly 4 1/2 years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine also came under Russian attack, with drone strikes destroying homes and torching Kyiv’s landmark book market.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said that it had destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones overnight. Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third of those destroyed over the Moscow region itself.
Smoke rises from a depot belonging to the Russian e-commerce firm Wildberries near the town of Podolsk, near Moscow, after it was hit by a drone strike on Sunday.TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP/Getty Images
An 83-year-old man was killed after a Ukrainian drone hit a private home in the Moscow region, local Gov. Andrey Vorobyov said. He also confirmed that a Ukrainian attack had sparked a blaze at a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Podolsk.
A drone attack targeted three towns in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, killing five people, local Gov. Yury Slyusar said. The attack, with more than 150 drones, damaged several homes and a railway station and sparked a forest fire.
Smoke rises over Kyiv following a Russian drone strike on the city overnight Saturday.Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Russian strikes kill five in Ukraine
A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media Sunday. He also said that one more person had been killed in the city of Sumy.
ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, confirmed that one of its sites had been hit in a missile attack and that operations had been partially suspended.
Elsewhere, a man and a woman both died when their home was hit by a Russian strike in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, said Ivan Fedorov, the head of the local military administration.
Firefighters try to put out a fire at book market in Kyiv, following a Russian missile attack early Sunday.Francisco Seco/The Associated Press
Bookseller Alexander Bahlai looks on as emergency responders fight the fire.Francisco Seco/The Associated Press
Russian attacks also sparked fires throughout the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, wounding six people. A blaze took hold at one of the city’s largest book markets, tearing through kiosks huddled close to the Pochaina metro station. Firefighters fought back the flames, which sent plumes of black smoke across the capital, and picked their way through rubble where the market’s crowded pavilions once stood.
“Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky said. “Since this morning, air raid alerts have continued in many regions – the Russians launched another wave of drones.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had targeted a metallurgical plant in Kryvyi Rih and several military-industrial sites in Kyiv, including a manufacturing facility for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles.
The domestically produced missiles are increasingly key to Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russia, with Zelensky announcing Saturday that Kyiv had used the weapons to attack a rocket research and production centre in Samara approximately 900 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.
NATO jet downs drone in Romanian airspace
Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday that a Spanish Air and Space Force F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered Romanian airspace.
The drone’s entry into the NATO member’s airspace was detected by surveillance systems at 4:44 a.m., the ministry said, about 24 kilometres north of the eastern city of Galati near the border with neighbouring Moldova. Moldova is a landlocked country between Ukraine and Romania.
A Spanish F-18 aircraft that was performing air policing duties “made radar contact with the target and received engagement approval,” the ministry said. “The drone was safely shot down by the F-18 aircraft at 05:01.”
Officials did not specify the drone’s origin.
A Romanian F-16 fighter jet prepares to conduct an air policing exercise at Borcea Air Base, amid heightened security concerns over cross-border drone incursions linked to Russia's war in Ukraine.Andreea Alexandru/The Associated Press
The incident comes weeks after Romanian pilots shot down the three drones over three days from F-16 fighter jets, as Russia intensified attacks against Ukraine near the border. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Romania has reported dozens of drone incidents, including some that have crashed and exploded on its territory.
Acting Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said in a post on X that the Spanish deployment in Romania was scaled up “at the request of Romania and NATO to bolster the Eastern Flank following prior drone incidents,” and that it was Spain’s fourth such deployment.