Kyiv/Moscow: Russia and Ukraine exchanged another wave of deadly long-range attacks over the weekend, with at least 14 people killed on both sides as the conflict continues to intensify far beyond the front lines.
According to officials, Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia killed at least nine people on Sunday, while Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine claimed five lives.
In Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, a large-scale overnight drone attack killed four people, including a 13-year-old girl. Authorities also reported two fatalities in the Saratov region following another drone strike. Separately, three people were killed after a strike hit a vehicle in Udmurtia, more than 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
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Ukraine has increasingly expanded its long-range drone campaign deep into Russian territory, targeting economic and energy infrastructure in an effort to weaken Moscow's ability to sustain its military operations.
Despite these attacks, Russia has continued its aerial assault on Ukraine.
Russian strikes killed two civilians in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, while one person each was reported dead in the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. In the northern Kharkiv region, a separate strike destroyed a postal terminal, killing a postal worker.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched a record 376 missiles at Ukraine during July—more than double the number fired in June. Many of the attacks were directed toward the capital, Kyiv, in what Ukrainian officials believe is an effort to overwhelm the country's air defense systems while Russian forces continue operations along the front lines.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has once again appealed to Western allies for additional air defense support, warning that Ukraine faces a shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles, currently considered one of the few systems capable of intercepting advanced Russian ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to end the war remain at a standstill. U.S.-led peace talks have been largely frozen since February, when the United States and Israel carried out joint military strikes on Iran, shifting international attention away from the conflict in Ukraine.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington intends to make renewed efforts in the coming weeks to restart negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
"We're going to see some efforts over the next few weeks to see if we can't restart talks between the two sides and bring this war to an end," Rubio said. He acknowledged that both Russia and Ukraine continue to hold firm positions on key issues but stressed that the United States remains prepared to support any opportunity that could generate momentum toward a peaceful resolution.
As fighting continues with no immediate breakthrough in sight, both military operations and diplomatic efforts remain central to the future course of the more than four-year-long conflict.
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