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.
Firefighters try to put out a fire at a city book market following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on August 16, 2026. | Photo 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.
Related Stories Russia seeks answers from U.S. about help for Ukraine: Sergei Lavrov Overnight Ukrainian blitz damages Russia's Black Sea naval stronghold, Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s drones hit a major Russian oil refinery, sparking fire 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.
North Korea’s Kim, Russia’s Putin reaffirm ties on Korean Liberation Day “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.
