KYIV — Russian missiles and drones killed at least three civilians in eastern and southern Ukraine overnight into Sunday and set fire to fuel depots at the Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said, in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a systematic attack on global food security.
The strikes deepened a summer campaign that has stretched Kyiv's depleted air defenses and put grain shipments through the Odesa complex — a lifeline for buyers across Africa and the Middle East — back at risk. Attacks on the port killed 28 people in the first three weeks of July alone, according to regional Governor Oleh Kiper.
In Kharkiv
Russian forces hit a high-rise in the Saltivskyi district of the northeastern city of Kharkiv, killing a 50-year-old man and a 66-year-old man, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. At least 21 people were wounded. Photographs shared by the governor showed a gaping hole across four storeys of the building as thick smoke poured out.
In the Berislavsky district of the southern Kherson region, artillery killed a 61-year-old woman early Sunday, the regional prosecutor's office said. Nine people, including four children, were wounded in what Zelenskyy called an "absolutely wicked" attack near a shopping mall in the Dnipropetrovsk city of Pavlohrad. Strikes were also reported in the Zhytomyr, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions.
The port
Overnight, Russian forces launched a barrage of ballistic, antiship and anti-radar missiles alongside more than 200 Shahed drones, Ukraine's air force said on Telegram. Missile and drone attacks were recorded at 22 locations, with debris from downed missiles at six more sites. Russia's TASS news agency reported strikes on fuel, lubricants and military equipment depots inside the Odesa port.
Zelenskyy said the strikes targeted the port's energy sector and injured at least eight people; residential buildings were damaged, and crews were working to restore power. "This is, in particular, how Russia is systematically waging war against global food security," he said, referring to the port's role in exporting grain around the world.
Kyiv's reply
Ukraine pressed its own long-range campaign. The Ukrainian general staff said its forces struck Russia's Ilsky and Syzran oil refineries overnight, causing fires at both, and hit Moscow-linked vessels in the Black Sea in what Zelenskyy said was an effort to limit oil revenues used to "finance" the war. TASS said Ukrainian drones killed three civilians overnight in Russia's Belgorod region. Reuters reported that Russia in turn struck two oil refineries in Ukraine's Sumy region.
Earlier Saturday, four people, including a child, were killed in Russian attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region, CBS News reported. Two grandparents and their 3-year-old grandson were killed in the Brovary district when multiple drones destroyed their home, and Zelenskyy said at least one person died in the capital in a strike involving six ballistic missiles against civilian infrastructure.
Counterpoint
Russia's Defense Ministry did not issue a public accounting of the weekend's exchange beyond the TASS reports on the Odesa port depots and the Black Sea vessels, and no Russian officials in Sunday's coverage addressed Zelenskyy's food-security charge. Casualty figures for the strikes on Kharkiv, Kherson and Pavlohrad came from Ukrainian government statements and could not be independently verified.
Zelenskyy is continuing a European tour that opened Saturday in Belgrade, where he met Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić — a close ally of Vladimir Putin who has refused to impose sanctions on Russia — to discuss economic ties, security and Belgrade's bid to join the European Union. He has renewed his appeal for more U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missiles, saying earlier in the week that allied supply had been "significantly reduced" this year.