Russian strikes kill eight across Ukraine, including two children

Russian missile and drone strikes killed eight people across Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, including two girls aged 5 and 12 in a village near Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said. Kyiv and Poltava also reported fatalities as the latest barrage hit residential areas far from the front line.

The attack landed after Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Wednesday that Russia was preparing a “massive attack” and urged people to heed air raid alerts. The Ukrainian military said multiple missile and drone strikes were launched across the country, underscoring how Russian attacks continue to probe air defenses in several regions at once rather than focusing on a single target area.

The deaths around Kryvyi Rih sharpened the toll in central Ukraine, where villages and towns have repeatedly absorbed strikes even as the main battlefield remains to the east and south. Kyiv, the capital, and Poltava were also struck in the same wave, showing that Russian firepower continues to reach deep into Ukraine’s interior and force officials to spread air-defense resources across a wider map.

The strikes also came against a week of sustained pressure on Kyiv. Russian attacks on July 29 killed 13 people in Ukraine, and earlier in the week Kyiv had already been hit for a third time in seven days, killing three people. That pattern points to a campaign built around persistence and volume, testing shelters, warning systems and interceptor stocks while keeping civilians under repeated threat.

The timing carried added political weight as Zelensky had met Donald Trump in Washington DC earlier in the week to push for more American backing. With each new barrage, the war’s diplomatic and military tracks remain tied together: Ukraine is still asking Western partners for more air defense, while Russia keeps showing it can strike cities even as battlefield lines remain largely fixed.