Russian drones kill woman, child in Sumy as UN warns of rising civilian deaths

Kyiv,UPDATED: Aug 14, 2026 20:22 IST

Russian jet-powered drones hit a home in northern Ukraine on Friday, killing a 29-year-old woman and her nine-year-old son, officials said, as the United Nations warned that civilian casualties in the war have risen sharply. The attack came a day after the UN said July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion began more than four years ago.

The latest strike in Sumy region was part of a wider wave of attacks and came amid renewed warnings from Moscow that it plans to intensify its campaign. Even as US diplomatic efforts to push for an end to the war are expected to continue, fighting and long-range strikes by both sides showed no sign of easing.

The overnight strike in Ukraine's northern Sumy region also wounded four others, including the dead boy's father and grandmother, who were taken to hospital with severe burns, regional military administration chief Oleh Hryhorov said. According to the UN monitoring mission in Kyiv, at least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 wounded in July as Russia stepped up attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities. The toll was 70 per cent higher than in July last year and 30 per cent more than in June this year.

Since Russia's invasion on February 24, 2022, UN human rights monitors say the war has killed at least 16,874 civilians, including 820 children, and wounded 51,273, including 3,126 children. "Every month this year the number of killed and injured civilians has increased. That trend accelerated sharply in July," said Danielle Bell, head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv. "The number of civilian casualties in July was the highest we documented in a single month since March 2022."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was preparing to step up its strikes on Ukraine. "We will use much harsher methods to destroy everything that feeds Kyiv's war machine from the West," Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state TV broadcast on Friday, referring to military aid sent to Ukraine. US officials said last month that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's main envoys, would travel to Kyiv at a later date, though no date has been made public as Washington focuses on the Iran war. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump, but Putin has refused, saying a comprehensive peace agreement must come first. Lavrov said that position was unchanged, adding: "We will only stop when there's a long-term, reliable and sustainable settlement."

In Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb destroyed six floors of a 10-storey apartment block, killing one person and injuring 16 others, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He said Russia was launching about 220 glide bombs every day at settlements near the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine. Russian forces have been pounding settlements with 1,300 kg glide bombs, artillery, missiles and drones before sending in infantry, a tactic that has left many towns and villages uninhabitable.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces also struck two tugboats in the Black Sea that were escorting cargo ships carrying Western weapons for Ukraine. It said overnight drone strikes also hit the railway station at Ukraine's southern Izmail port, which Moscow claimed was being used to transport military cargo and fuel for the Ukrainian armed forces. Zelenskyy said Russia attacked 12 Ukrainian regions overnight, wounding dozens of people.

Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its long-range strikes on Russian infrastructure. Authorities in Russia's Leningrad region said a Ukrainian attack hit the port of Ust-Luga, one of Russia's biggest oil and gas export terminals located more than 800 km from Ukraine, causing a brief fire. The port has been targeted repeatedly this summer as Kyiv seeks to hit oil exports that bring Russia crucial revenue for the war. Ukraine also launched another attack on the premises of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, which Kyiv says helps supply the Russian military. Acting Tver governor Vitaly Korolyov said a wall of a Wildberries warehouse was damaged, while the company said the damage was "insignificant" and goods stored there were unaffected. Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defences overnight intercepted 553 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the waters of the Azov and Black seas.

The fighting also spilled beyond Ukraine and Russia. NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace early on Friday, according to the Latvian army and a NATO official. Latvian authorities did not identify the drone's origin, but said it had crossed into the country "as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare". Most drones that have previously crossed into Latvia are believed to have been Ukrainian drones pushed off course by Russian electronic jamming. NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said two Italian Eurofighter jets were scrambled and one shot down the drone, while two Turkish fighter jets were also deployed. Residents in five municipalities in eastern Latvia were warned and told to take shelter. In Romania, the Defence Ministry said a drone crashed in woodland in Tulcea County, 5 km from the border with Ukraine. It said military radars did not detect it because it was flying at a "very low" altitude and gave no details about where it came from.

Friday's developments underlined the widening scale of the war, with deadly attacks on Ukrainian homes and apartment blocks, fresh threats from Moscow, continued strikes deep inside Russia, and drones affecting airspace in neighbouring NATO countries.

With PTI Inputs

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