Ukraine launches near-800 drone strike on Moscow as Russian missiles kill 10 in Kharkiv village
Ukrainian forces staged one of their biggest drone attacks on Russia since Moscow's invasion more than four years ago, firing nearly 800 drones just two days after a similar salvo, officials said Tuesday, August 18.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile strike on a village in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region killed at least 10 people and wounded eight others, demolishing homes in the process, officials said.
The two countries remain locked in an escalating exchange of long-range aerial strikes, even as fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometre (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine remains constrained by large numbers of drones and ground robots threatening troop movements, with neither side making significant battlefield gains, according to analysts cited in the report.
Over the past year, Ukraine has developed and deployed domestically produced long-range drones for strikes deep inside Russian territory, with its drone technology drawing attention from governments and defence manufacturers worldwide.
Kyiv officials aim to make the Russian public feel the war's consequences and pressure President Vladimir Putin into a peace settlement, though Putin has so far shown no indication he intends to halt the invasion.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X: "Putin continues to drag out the war instead of accepting Ukraine's realistic ceasefire proposals and ending the bloodshed."
Russian air defences intercepted 791 Ukrainian drones overnight across several Russian regions, as well as annexed Crimea and the Black and Azov seas, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. The AP tally described it as the second-largest drone attack since January 2025.
More than 600 drones were directed toward the Moscow region, where 180 were shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, without providing further details. Officials reported no deaths or major damage from the Moscow-area strikes.
Three people were wounded in the surrounding Moscow region, Governor Andrei Vorobyov said, while three others were wounded in the adjacent Ryazan region, where three private houses were damaged, according to Governor Pavel Malkov.
The overnight attack also sparked a fire at a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, in an industrial zone. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the company's depots, alleging they help supply the Russian military. Wildberries said the facility sustained "insignificant damage."
Coverage of the attack on state and Kremlin-backed media was largely muted, as is often the case, the report noted. State-run channels Russia 1 and Channel One did not mention the attack in their morning bulletins. However, state news agency RIA Novosti featured it prominently on its website, calling it "one of the most large-scale attacks on Moscow since the beginning of the summer." State newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta also featured Vorobyov's account of the strike, describing it as "massive," while pro-Kremlin tabloid MK ran a brief on its homepage.
A Russian missile strike on the village of Pechenihy in Kharkiv region killed 10 civilians, according to preliminary information from Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration. Another 17 people were wounded, he said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it "a brutal attack" that damaged 10 homes, a cafe, a post office, a store and at least seven vehicles, according to Syniehubov. "We will definitely respond to this Russian strike," Zelenskyy said on social media.
Separately, three people were killed and three others wounded over the past day in Russian attacks on Ukraine's Sumy region, including drone strikes and an explosive device blast, Ukraine's National Police said.
The UK Defence Ministry said Tuesday, August 18, it would not scale back its military support for Kyiv, after Russia warned that Ukraine's reported use of British drones for attacks on Russian soil would carry unspecified consequences for London.
"Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin's illegal invasion," a British defence spokesperson said.
The British newspaper The Sunday Times had reported that two UK companies manufactured drones used by Ukraine to strike Russia. Following the report, the Russian embassy in the UK said in a statement that "London's actions will inevitably carry consequences."
(Sourced through PTI)