RUSSIAN STRIKES HAVE killed one person and wounded 13 others in Ukraine’s capital on Sunday.

The attack was in response to a wave of drone strikes launched by Kyiv which struck e-commerce warehouses in Russia on Saturday. 

As a result of the Ukrainian strikes in the Moscow and Tambov regions, eight people were killed. 

“In response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure and on our cities and communities, two major logistics facilities were hit in the Moscow and Tambov regions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.

He alleged the centres were used “to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment”. 

Russian strikes

AFP journalists in Kyiv heard explosions moments after the Ukrainian air force warned residents on Sunday via Telegram of incoming ballistic missiles.

One of the explosions was so powerful it set off alarms of cars parked in the city centre, an AFP journalist said.

Ukraine’s state emergency services said on Telegram that one person was killed, and 13 others were wounded in the attack that police said had targeted six districts.

According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and local authorities, missiles struck an apartment building in the Solomianskyi district while a fire broke out at a supermarket.

It was reported that a house was on fire in the Sviatoshynsky district.

Strikes were also reported at a shopping and entertainment centre in the Dniprovsky district, an apartment building in the Shevchenkivsky district and a non-residential building.

Regional official Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram that Russian drone strikes killed one person in Dnipropetrovsk, the central region that borders the frontline.

Meanwhile, on the Russian side, a Ukrainian strike killed one person in the Kursk region, which is near the frontline.

Russia has been firing drones and missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities almost daily since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Intensified attacks

Kyiv has in recent months intensified its strikes on Russian territory, disrupting the lives of ordinary Russians, strikes it is calling retribution for more than four years of bombardments against its territory.

The campaign, which Kyiv calls “long-range sanctions”, has mostly targeted Russia’s oil infrastructure, triggering a full-blown fuel crisis in one of the world’s biggest oil-producing countries.

More than 370 drones were launched toward the Moscow region overnight, said the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin.

Between 11 and 18 July, almost 1,892 Ukrainian drones heading towards Moscow were intercepted, he added.