At least five killed as Ukrainian drones strike Russian regions, Wildberries warehouse hit again
At least five people were killed in Ukrainian drone attacks across Russia overnight into Sunday, with strikes also hitting industrial sites and another Wildberries warehouse. Russia, in turn, attacked Ukrainian cities with drones and guided bombs, killing at least two.
Local officials in Russia reported that Ukrainian drone strikes overnight into Sunday killed at least five people in several regions. The attacks also hit industrial facilities and another warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, often described as the country’s equivalent of Amazon. In less than two weeks, Ukraine has struck more than a dozen of the company’s warehouses as part of a broader aerial campaign aimed at undermining Russia’s war effort, damaging its economy and making ordinary Russians feel the consequences of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defence systems shot down 635 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas. It did not say how many drones were launched or how many reached their targets. In Ukraine, the air force said Russia attacked with 133 drones overnight, of which 24 hit targets. Later on Sunday, separate Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv killed at least two people, according to local officials.
Ukrainian drones targeted a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, about 800 kilometres from the Russian-Ukrainian border, regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said. A fire broke out, but there were no casualties. Kyiv’s campaign against Wildberries first hit company sites in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and the Tambov region on July 18. Further strikes followed on facilities across western and southern Russia, as well as Russian-held Crimea. At least nine people have been killed and dozens wounded in those attacks.
Two people were killed when a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the Saratov region, east of Samara, according to governor Roman Busargin. He said the strikes damaged civil infrastructure in Engels, where the deaths occurred, and in the regional capital Saratov. Both cities have been frequent targets of Ukrainian attacks in recent years; Engels hosts a military airbase, and Saratov has a large oil refinery.
Further north, in Bashkortostan, governor Radiy Khabirov said air defence repelled a large-scale drone strike on industrial facilities in the city of Ufa. He did not specify what was hit, but said a fire was being extinguished. In the Udmurt Republic, to the northwest, three civilians died and two more were wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike, according to acting regional head Olga Abramova. She said air defences shot down two drones and prevented an attempted attack. A civilian car was damaged in the strike, but she did not clarify whether drone debris was the cause.
In Ukraine, one person died on Sunday when a Russian guided bomb struck a residential building in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, said local administration head Ivan Fedorov. Another attack killed one person and set fire to a postal terminal on the outskirts of Kharkiv in the northeast, said regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov.
