Strikes kill at least 7 in Ukraine and Russia

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Civilian deaths in the more than four-year war have spiked this summer.

Civilian deaths in the more than four-year war have spiked this summer.

PHOTO: REUTERS

  • Russian strikes on Pavlograd killed three people, including a two-year-old girl, while Ukrainian counter-strikes killed four others, including a three-year-old boy.
  • Civilian deaths have surged this summer, with the UN reporting June as the deadliest month since the 2022 invasion began.
  • Diplomatic talks remain stalled as the Kremlin insists on controlling all eastern Ukraine, despite rising civilian casualties and ongoing cross-border attacks.

AI generated

KYIV – A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Pavlograd on July 23 killed three people, as Kyiv’s counter-strikes on Russia and Moscow-annexed Crimea killed four others, including a three-year-old.

Civilian deaths in the more than four-year war have spiked this summer, with the United Nations saying June was the deadliest since the first year of Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Diplomatic talks to end fighting are at a deadlock.

“Three people were killed,” said Oleksandr Ganzha, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region.

“19 people were wounded... Among the casualties is a two-year-old girl,” he later added, saying all the wounded were in hospital.

Pavlograd, which lies in east-central Ukraine and had a pre-war population of some 100,000 people, has come under Russian attack throughout the conflict.

In Russia, officials said a three-year-old boy was killed on the outskirts of the city of Voronezh when a Ukrainian drone hit his house and set it on fire.

Located 500km south of Moscow, Voronezh has frequently been targeted by Ukrainian drones, with Kyiv pushing its retaliatory strikes further into Russia.

Regional governor Alexander Gusev said the boy’s parents sustained “various wounds”.

Ukrainian night-time attacks on Crimea, under Russian occupation since 2014, killed two people, Kremlin-installed officials said.

One more man was killed by a Ukrainian drone in Russia’s Belgorod region, according to the local authorities. The Belgorod region borders Ukraine and is regularly hit.

The Kremlin has refused to back down from its maximalist demands of seizing the whole of eastern Ukraine, while US-led talks on resolving the conflict have stalled.

The UN said July 22 that there had been a 37 per cent rise in civilian casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war in the first half of 2026. AFP

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