Russia-Ukraine strikes kill civilians as Kryvyi Rih toll rises to 16

Kyiv,UPDATED: Aug 22, 2026 20:18 IST

Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine on Saturday, officials said, while a Ukrainian drone attack killed three people in Russia's Krasnodar region. The strikes came a day after a Russian attack on a shopping centre in Ukraine's central city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least 16 people and wounded about 130.

The latest attacks underlined the continued intensity of the war, with Russia stepping up ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv in recent weeks. Moscow has been exploiting Ukraine's long-running shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors, the only weapons in its arsenal capable of shooting down such missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said one person was killed and another was wounded after ballistic missiles hit railway infrastructure in Kyiv overnight. Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had struck a locomotive depot. In a separate attack, local authorities said two people were killed on Saturday afternoon in a Russian ballistic missile strike on the Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital.

Russian drone strikes also killed one person overnight in the Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said. A daytime attack there killed three more people and wounded 15. Zelenskyy said three people were also wounded in an attack on a minibus in the regional capital, also called Zaporizhzhia. In Russia's southern Krasnodar region, authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike killed three people, including two children, and wounded two adults.

The attacks followed Friday's strike on a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih. Dnipropetrovsk regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said early on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 16, and later said four people were still missing. Zelenskyy described the attack on his hometown as a double-tap strike, in which a first wave of drones hit the area and a second wave followed as rescue workers responded. He said the fire, which spread across 9,000 square metres, had been extinguished and rescue work was continuing.

Kryvyi Rih has been hit several times during the 4-year all-out war between Russia and Ukraine. One of the deadliest earlier attacks there came in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed. Large-scale Russian strikes have become frequent this summer, and Friday's attacks came just 24 hours after Russia launched a night assault on Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones that killed 16 people. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 wounded.

At the same time, Ukraine has taken the war deeper into Russian territory with long-range drone strikes on oil facilities, which have caused fuel shortages across Russia. It has also targeted warehouses of Wildberries, the country's biggest online retailer. Russian news outlet Astra reported on Saturday that a Ukrainian drone set an oil refinery ablaze in the Samara region. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified "industrial facility" and at a logistics centre for Ozon, a rival to Wildberries. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had struck the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in Samara, about 1,000 kilometres from the front line.

Saturday's attacks left casualties on both sides, a day after one of the deadliest recent strikes in Kryvyi Rih, as Russia kept up pressure on Ukrainian cities and Ukraine continued its long-range drone campaign inside Russia.

With PTI Inputs

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