Sawt Falasteen - Strikes kill 16 in Russia and Ukraine

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 three others in parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

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.

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 Zelensky's hometown. The plant, one of Ukraine's biggest steel producers, said it partially halted operations after the strike damaged its core production facilities.

Strikes also hit other regions, killing two people in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and one in the border region of Sumy.

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. Tons of everything. And that's it," the 45-year-old told AFP.

In a social media post on the overnight raid, Zelensky 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.

- Spillover to Europe -

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 US-Israeli war against Iran diverted supplies.

"When North Korean ballistic missiles destroy infrastructure and claim lives here in Europe, European interceptors cannot simply be allowed to sit in storage," Zelensky said. Kyiv has recently renewed claims that Moscow is receiving more missiles and troops from its ally North Korea.

Countries bordering the conflict have meanwhile faced increasing spillover from the drone war. After the overnight raid, Romania's defence ministry said a Spanish F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone that breached its airspace near the borders with Ukraine and Moldova.

NATO said Friday its fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace -- the second such incident there in a week, according to Latvia's defence ministry.

For its part, Ukraine has increasingly targeted warehouses belonging to Russia's biggest online retailer Wildberries, saying the company supplies components for Russian drones.

Near Moscow, another Wildberries warehouse was set ablaze by Ukrainian drones overnight. Since mid-July, Ukraine has struck around 20 warehouses and buildings linked to the company.

In July alone, 437 civilians were killed in Ukraine, the highest monthly toll since May 2022, according to a United Nations tally. Russian authorities separately reported 79 civilians killed on their side in July, up from the previous month.

U.AlSharif--SF-PST