A Russian drone strike on ​a minibus in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson killed ‌four people on Wednesday (August 18, 2026), Ukrainian authorities said, in ​what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a “vicious” ⁠attack.

Another woman was killed and a man wounded in a separate drone attack on a car in the ‌central part of the city, the governor of the surrounding region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said ‌on the Telegram messaging app.

The four passengers – a ‌man ⁠and three women – were killed in a ⁠morning attack on the minibus, Mr. Prokudin said on Telegram. There was no immediate comment from Russia on the incident. Russia denies ​targeting civilians in the ‌war triggered by its invasion of its smaller neighbour in February 2022.

“The vicious Russian ‘safari’ against our people in Kherson has long gone beyond anything ‌a normal person could imagine,” Mr. Zelenskyy said on ​X.

“These are the realities of everyday life in Ukraine’s frontline regions. While partners hesitate ⁠over additional supplies of defence equipment, the Russians have long run wild.”

Ukrainians have coined the term “safari” ‌to describe drones “hunting down” civilians or vehicles in the street. Earlier this month, Ukraine released a video showing a drone chasing down and wounding a vegetable seller in Kherson.

Mr. Prokudin said that four passengers and the minibus driver were wounded ‌in the attack. He posted blurred photos of a yellow ​bus with bloodied steps, shattered windows and footage from inside the vehicle with its ⁠floor covered in blood and a hole in its ⁠roof.

Mr. Prokudin said the Russian operator of the drone must have seen he was targeting a ‌civilian vehicle.

“Despite this, the operator dropped the explosive directly on to the roof of the ​bus,” he said.

Strikes killed 19 people in Russia and Ukraine, authorities said Sunday (August 16, 2026), as waves of drones and missiles pummelled civilian infrastructure on both sides.

With fighting at the front at a near standstill and talks frozen, the warring countries have significantly stepped up long-range attacks deep behind each other’s lines, pushing the civilian death toll to its highest levels since the war’s first months in 2022.

In Russia, swarms of Ukrainian drones killed five people in a residential area of the southern Rostov region, regional governor Yuri Slusar said.

Three more people were killed in the Belgorod, Kursk and Moscow regions, along with four others in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

Moscow’s regional governor Andrey Vorobyov described the assault as “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory”. Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 822 drones across the country overnight.

Kyiv market hit

In Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed two people and wounded 14 at ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown.

The plant, one of Ukraine’s biggest steel producers, said it partially halted operations after the strike damaged its core production facilities.

Another strike hit Kryvyi Rih on Sunday evening (August 16, 2026), killing one person.

Strikes also hit other regions, killing two people in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, one in the border region of Sumy and another in Donetsk in the east.

In Kyiv, a popular outdoor book market at Pochaina, long the place to find rare and antiquarian volumes, was struck. Bookseller Dmytro Semenukha saw all four of his stalls burn to the ground.

“There used to be a store. And books, and flags of all the countries, all the countries. Tonnes of everything. And that’s it,” the 45-year-old told AFP.

In a social media post on the overnight raid, Mr. Zelenskyy said that “wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure”.

Over the past week, he said, Ukrainian cities had been pummelled by “more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles”, as he renewed his appeal to allies for more air defence.

Russia has carried out near-daily missile and drone strikes across Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in early 2022.

It has recently intensified attacks using hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles, exploiting Ukraine’s air defence shortages after the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran diverted supplies.

“When North Korean ballistic missiles destroy infrastructure and claim lives here in Europe, European interceptors cannot simply be allowed to sit in storage,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

Russian attacks killed at least ‌four people on Sunday (June 28, 2026) in Ukraine’s ​southeast and northeast, regional officials ⁠said.

Strikes on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed two people and injured ‌16, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram. Pictures ‌posted online by the ‌governor ⁠showed a building ablaze and ⁠parts of a neighborhood reduced to rubble.

In the northeastern border region of ​Kharkiv, a ‌frequent Russian target, a missile strike on the town of Zmiiv killed one person and injured ‌eight, including two children, Regional Governor ​Oleh Syniehubov said.

Police in the Kharkiv region ⁠also said an officer was killed as he was trying to ‌organize the evacuation of residents in another community further north. In the Sumy region, also on the Russian border, the regional governor said an elderly ‌woman was killed during the day ​in an area near the border.

Reuters was unable to ⁠independently verify accounts from either side. Both ⁠Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in the ‌more than four-year-old conflict.

Moscow shot down dozens of drones in the early hours of Monday (June 22, 2026) and briefly suspended flights at airports, local authorities said, ‌just days after Ukraine hit the Russian capital’s oil refinery again.

Nearly 60 drones headed for Moscow were downed, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ‌said on Telegram. Mr. Sobyanin did not provide further details, adding that ‌emergency ⁠services had been dispatched to areas where drones were downed.

The ⁠airports of Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo, as well as Zhukovskiy near the capital, had suspended flights, although flights were later resumed, the aviation watchdog said separately.

In total, Russian defence systems downed ​301 drones overnight, local newswires said, ‌citing the Defence Ministry. That tally included Russia-occupied areas.

The attack comes after drones again hit Moscow’s sole oil refinery last week. In that strike, Moscow’s defence systems shot down nearly 200 drones in one of the ‌biggest air attacks on the city since Russia’s full-scale invasion of ​Ukraine in 2022.

In Ukraine, two people were killed and six injured in separate Russian attacks overnight, local authorities said.

Russia ⁠hit the southern Odesa region with an Iskander ballistic missile on Sunday evening, killing one and injuring three people, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

Vehicles ‌and fuel storage tanks caught fire after the strike hit an agricultural facility, he said.

In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, a woman was killed and three other people injured after a drone attack, Ivan Fedorov, the local governor, said on Telegram on Monday (June 22).

A Russian drone attack also hit a Turkish dry cargo vessel, the Victress, which was sailing under the ‌Panamanian flag, the Ukrainian navy said, adding there were casualties among the nine-member international crew which ​it rescued.

Reuters could not independently verify the details.

Elsewhere, the city of Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea cancelled all open-air public events ⁠on Monday and will keep street lights switched off, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city governor, ⁠said on Telegram as he called on people to curb electricity usage.

Crimea, a popular tourist destination for Russians, has suspended fuel sales ‌to the public and businesses, with supplies restricted to government agencies responsible for essential services and security, as Ukraine’s drone attacks on its ​supply routes and energy facilities elsewhere led to a fuel crisis.

The United Nations Refugee Agency on Friday (May 22, 2026) said ​it had lost $1 million worth ‌of aid when a Russian missile ​struck one of ⁠its warehouses in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine earlier this week.

The warehouse, which contained ‌emergency shelter materials, including sleeping mats, and hygiene kits ‌was destroyed on Wednesday (May 20, 2026) and ‌two ⁠people were killed, Bernadette Castel-Hollingworth, ⁠the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) Representative in Kyiv, said via video link from Poland.

The supplies were ​destined to be ‌distributed to displaced and war-affected people in frontline areas in Ukraine, and deprive people of critical ‌assistance at a time of ​significant need as forced displacement and evacuations continue from frontline ⁠regions, according to UNHCR.

“It is significant for us, because it ‌is the first time that a UNHCR facility is being targeted or attacked,” Mr. Castel-Hollingworth said. UNHCR said it was part of a broader trend of attacks on humanitarian ‌convoys.

Last week, two clearly marked ​UN convoys with humanitarian workers were hit by drones: one ⁠truck was delivering aid in the Dnipropetrovsk ⁠region, while a convoy on the way to ‌Ostriv in the Kherson region was also targeted, UNHCR said.

A drone strike claimed by Ukraine triggered a fire at Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga as the regional governor on Sunday (March 29, 2026) reported new damage at the major exporting hub hit for a second time in days.

Ukraine has intensified retaliatory attacks on Russian infrastructure — including refineries, oil depots and ports — saying they are justified as part of the effort to cut revenues funding Russia’s offensive.

“There is damage to the port of Ust-Luga. There were no casualties,” Russian regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said on social media.

He said that rescuers were working to extinguish a fire at the port, a key hub for Russian fertilisers, oil and coal exports.

Thirty six drones were destroyed overnight in the region, Mr. Drozdenko added.

‘High price’

Ukraine’s SBU security service later Sunday (March 29, 2026) claimed the attack saying its drones “successfully struck” the Ust-Luga oil terminal.

“The SBU, together with the Defence Forces, continues systematic work to reduce the enemy’s financial and logistical capabilities,” acting head of the SBU, Yevgeny Khmara, said in a statement.

“Russia will pay a high price for its aggression,” Mr. Khmara said, vowing that such attacks “will continue”.

The northwestern port suffered damage this week when it was targeted by drones in a previous attack claimed by Ukraine’s military.

“Over the past week the SBU has already successfully struck the enemy’s oil infrastructure in the Baltic Sea four times,” the security service said.

Ukraine on Monday (March 23, 2026) claimed an attack on another major Russian Baltic port, Primorsk. The black smoke from the fire could be seen on satellite images.

A Ukrainian drone also killed a man in Russia’s Belgorod region, its governor said on Sunday (March 29, 2026).

The civilian was killed after two drone strikes hit the border city of Grayvoron, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, blaming the Ukrainian military.

Belgorod, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, has frequently been hit with drone attacks, with Russian officials reporting multiple civilian injuries and damage to homes and vehicles across the region in recent weeks.

Russia meanwhile fired 442 drones and one missile in its latest night-time offensive, with 380 UAVs shot down or intercepted, Kyiv’s air force said Sunday (March 29, 2026).

Russian forces pounded Ukrainian ‌power infrastructure before a new round of peace ​talks, killing three energy workers and ⁠leaving tens of thousands of people without power and heat, officials said on Tuesday (February 17, 2026).

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the ‌overnight strikes on 12 Ukrainian regions that came under attack hours before the scheduled start ‌of U.S.-backed trilateral talks involving Kyiv and ‌Moscow ⁠in Geneva.

“It was a combined strike, ⁠specially calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector,” Mr. Zelenskiy wrote on X, calling for diplomacy ​to be backed by “justice ‌and strength.”

Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has frequently carried out attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities this winter that ‌have knocked out power and heating.

Ukraine’s deputy energy ​minister said the three workers were killed when a Russian drone struck their ⁠car near the Sloviansk power plant, in a frontline area which Moscow wants Kyiv to cede in ‌exchange for peace.

Power infrastructure supplying Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea port city of Odesa suffered “incredibly serious” damage, said private energy company DTEK. “Repairs will take a long time to restore the equipment to working order,” the company said on social media.

Deputy ‌Energy Minister Artem Nekrasov said homes in five regions ​had suffered power cuts as a result of the strikes, and also reported disruptions ⁠to heating supply in Odesa and Sumy, a regional ⁠capital in northern Ukraine near the Russian border.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ‌nearly 400 drones and 29 missiles. Most were downed, but 13 targets in Ukraine were hit, ​it added.

Ukraine’s ‍Foreign Minister accused ​Russian President ‌Vladimir ​Putin on Saturday (January 24, 2026) of “cynically” ordering a massive missile strike while ​delegations from Ukraine, ⁠Russia and the U.S. were ​in ⁠Abu Dhabi for Washington-brokered peace talks.

“This barbaric ‌attack once ‌again proves that ‍Putin’s place is not at ‍the board of peace, but at the dock of the ⁠special tribunal,” Foreign Minister ​Andrii Sybiha wrote ⁠on X.

Russia launched waves of air strikes against Ukraine’s two largest ​cities Kyiv and Kharkiv early on Saturday (January 24, 2026), with one person ⁠killed and at least 23 injured. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 375 drones and 21 missiles in the strikes, which once again targeted energy infrastructure, ​knocking out power and heat ⁠for large parts of the capital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said on Friday (January 23, 2026) that it was too early to draw conclusions from the first day of meetings in Abu Dhabi, and he ‌had urged Russia to show it was ready to ‌end the war. The talks were expected to resume for a final day on Saturday (January 24, 2026) morning.

Ahead of the ‍talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday (January 23, 2026) that Russia had not dropped its insistence on Ukraine yielding all of its eastern area ‍of Donbas – Ukraine’s industrial heartland grouping the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of Donetsk — about 5,000 sq km (1,900 sq miles) — has proven a major stumbling block to any deal.

Read | Ukraine, Russia hold first direct talks on latest U.S. peace plan

Mr. Zelenskyy refuses to give up land that Russia has not been able to capture in four years of grinding, attritional warfare. Polls show little appetite among Ukrainians for ⁠territorial concessions.

Russia says it wants a diplomatic solution but will keep working to achieve its goals by military means ​as long as a negotiated solution remains elusive.

Before Saturday’s strikes, Kyiv had ⁠already endured two mass overnight attacks since the New Year that knocked out power and heating to hundreds of residential buildings. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday that 800,000 people in Kyiv – where temperatures were around -10 Celsius – had been left without ⁠power after the latest Russian attack.

Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday (January 13, 2026), aiming again at the power grid amid freezing temperatures in an apparent snub to U.S.-led peace efforts as Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour approaches the four-year mark.

Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Mr. Zelenskyy said.

The daytime temperature in Kyiv, which has endured freezing temperatures for more than two weeks, was minus 12 degrees C, with streets covered in ice and the rumble of generators heard throughout the capital.

Kyiv has grappled with severe power shortages for days, although Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday night’s strikes caused the biggest electrical outage the city has faced so far.

Kyiv residents huddle for warmth

More than 500 residential buildings remained without central heating Tuesday (January 13, 2026). Throughout the city, bare trees were weighed down with icicles and snow was piled up next to sidewalks.

To cope, friends and relatives gathered in those apartments that have power or hot water, at least temporarily. They charge their phones, take hot showers, or share a warm drink.

Klitschko ordered the city to provide one hot meal per day to needy residents. He also announced that workers in the city’s water, heating and road maintenance services would receive bonuses for working “day and night” to restore critical infrastructure.

Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.

On Monday (January 12, 2026), the U.S. accused Russia of a “dangerous and inexplicable escalation” of the fighting at a time when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.

Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on February 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponising winter.”

The attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.

In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.

An overnight Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s central Kirovohrad region partially cut power and disrupted railway operations, officials said on Wednesday (September 17, 2025).

“As of now, the regional centre and 44 settlements in the Oleksandrivka territorial community have been partially cut off from the power supply,” Andriy Raykovych wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Some private homes were also damaged and railway travel has been disrupted, he said. Emergency services reported battling fires at three locations and said there were no casualties.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said the Russian forces targeted railway infrastructure in the overnight attack, without specifying the location.

“Last night, the enemy launched a massive drone strike in an attempt to disable the substations that power the railway network,” he wrote on Telegram.

“Such strikes have a clear goal: to disrupt passenger and freight transport, disrupt the stable operation of transport, and put additional pressure on people and the economy.”

He said that the Ukrainian state railways Ukrzaliznytsia deployed over 20 reserve locomotives in the attack’s aftermath.