The strikes killed 19 people in Russia and Ukraine, authorities said Sunday, as waves of drones and missiles pummeled civilian infrastructure on both sides. With fighting on the front lines nearly paralyzed and talks frozen, the countries in conflict have significantly stepped up long-range strikes behind each other’s lines, bringing civilian death tolls to their highest levels since the first months of the war in 2022. Read moreLive: Ukraine launches 600 drones against Russia, one of the largest airstrikes of the war In Russia, swarms of Ukrainian drones killed five people in a residential area in the southern region of Rostov regional governor Yuri Said Slusar. Three more people died in the Belgorod, Kursk and Moscow regions, along with four others in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. Moscow Regional Governor Andrey Vorobyov described the attack as “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent times.” Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had intercepted 822 drones across the country overnight. kyiv market hit In Ukraine, a barrage of Russian drones and missiles killed two people and injured 14 at the ArcelorMittal steel plant in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The plant, one of Ukraine’s largest steel producers, said it partially halted operations after the strike damaged its main production facilities. Another attack hit Kryvyi Rih on Sunday afternoon, killing one person. The attacks also hit other regions, killing two people in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, one in the border region of Sumy and another in Donetsk in the east. In kyiv, a popular open-air book market in Pochaina, long the place to find rare and ancient volumes, was attacked. Bookseller Dmytro Semenukha saw his four stalls burn to the ground. Firefighters try to put out a fire at a city book market after a Russian missile attack in kyiv on August 16, 2026. © Dan Bashakov, AP “There was a store. And books and flags from all countries, from all countries. Tons of everything. And that’s it,” the 45-year-old told AFP. In a social media post about the overnight attack, Zelensky said that “wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they attack civilian infrastructure.” Over the past week, he said, Ukrainian cities had been hit by “more than 1,550 attack drones, almost 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles,” as he renewed his call for allies to increase air defense. Russia has carried out almost daily missile and drone attacks on Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in early 2022. It has recently stepped up attacks using hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles, exploiting Ukraine’s air defense shortage after the US-Israel war against Iran diverted supplies. “When North Korean ballistic missiles destroy infrastructure and claim lives here in Europe, European interceptors cannot be allowed to simply remain 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 faced increasing effects of drone warfare. After the overnight attack, Romania’s Defense Ministry said a Spanish F-18 fighter jet had shot down a drone that had violated its airspace near the borders with Ukraine and Moldova. Read moreSpanish fighter jet shoots down drone violating Romanian airspace NATO said Friday that its fighter jets had shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace, the second such incident there in a week, according to Latvia’s Defense Ministry. For its part, Ukraine has increasingly attacked the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, claiming that the company supplies components for Russian drones. Near Moscow, another Wildberries warehouse was set on fire by Ukrainian drones overnight. Since mid-July, Ukraine has attacked around twenty warehouses and buildings linked to the company. Zelensky says those attacks, along with attacks on oil refineries, are aimed at undermining Russia’s war economy. In July alone, 437 civilians were killed in Ukraine, the highest monthly toll since May 2022, according to a United Nations tally. Russian authorities have reported 79 civilians killed on their side in July, more than the previous month. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)