Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian territory killed at least nine people on Sunday, according to officials in both countries, while Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five. The deadliest single incident occurred in the Belgorod region, where four people died, including a 13-year-old girl near a playground, acting Governor Alexander Shuvaev said. A separate strike on a residential building in the Saratov region killed two, and a drone attack on a car in Udmurtia, more than 1,000 kilometres from the front line, killed three, acting Governor Olga Abramova reported. Some regional accounts put the overall Russian death toll at eight, but the higher figure was confirmed by multiple Ukrainian and Russian authorities.

The strikes also hit a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, in the Samara region, about 800 kilometres from Ukraine’s most advanced positions. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said the attack caused a fire but no casualties. Since mid-July, Ukrainian forces have struck more than a dozen Wildberries facilities across Russia and in annexed Crimea, according to regional officials and the company. The first wave of attacks on 17–18 July killed eight people and wounded nearly 90. Wildberries is often described as the Russian equivalent of Amazon and is a linchpin of the consumer economy. According to Kyiv, the campaign targets logistics hubs that help sustain Moscow’s war effort, aiming to pressure the Kremlin into negotiations.

In Ukraine, Russian glide-bomb attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia killed one person and injured 21, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said. Other Russian strikes killed two people in Dnipropetrovsk and one each in Kherson and Kharkiv, where a postal terminal was destroyed and a worker killed, the Nova Poshta operator reported. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had downed 635 Ukrainian drones overnight across more than ten regions. On the Russian side, Ukrainian forces also struck the Saratov oil refinery and the Engels airbase, sparking fires at both facilities, and an oil depot in the Kaluga region, according to Kyiv’s military.

The exchanges come nearly four-and-a-half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to UN data, civilian casualties in Ukraine have risen sharply this year as Russia has increased its use of long-range missiles that are difficult to intercept. US-led talks on ending the conflict have been frozen since February, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran. Both Moscow and Kyiv deny intentionally targeting civilians. No new diplomatic sessions have been announced, and the fighting continues to widen in geographic scope.