Five children among 12 killed in Russian-held resort, while Russian drone kills three Ukrainian drivers at courier firm.
Published On 25 Jul 2026
Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes on Ukrainian territory have killed at least 15 people, including five children at a holiday camp in a Russian-held area in the east.
The children were among 12 people killed in an overnight drone attack on the resort area of Kyrylivka, on the coast of the Sea of Azov near the town of Melitopol in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia, Russian-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said on Saturday, adding that a further 19 people were wounded.
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He accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians.
Ukraine did not immediately comment on the attack on Kyrylivka, which fell to Russian forces soon after their invasion began in 2022.
In Ukraine’s Sumy region, a Russian drone attack killed three drivers for the Ukrainian courier service Nova Poshta and set a building ablaze. Ukrainian officials said the site was a civilian facility operated by the courier service. Russia’s defence ministry said the strike had targeted a Ukrainian drone storage and launch site.
The strikes came hours after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in his evening address late on Friday that a large-scale Russian attack was imminent according to intelligence assessments.
The White House said Saturday that Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Tuesday in Washington.
Meanwhile, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said Saturday a peace deal could be within reach if both sides froze the war and returned to negotiations.
Speaking alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at a forum in Omsk, Tokayev praised what he called Putin’s diplomatic flexibility and suggested reviving an updated version of the Istanbul talks framework.
Romania’s defence ministry said on Saturday its forces “safely shot down” a drone breaching its airspace in an “unpopulated area” near the Ukrainian border.
In a post on social media, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said the drone was “shot down by a Romanian pilot from an F-16 aircraft”.
The interception came a day after a suspected Russian drone was shot down around Padina, northeast of the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
There have been multiple incursions of drones launched by both Russia and Ukraine into the airspace of Romania and other NATO members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago.
In June, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded at the Black Sea port of Constanta, while three other sea drones exploded outside the port. No injuries were reported.
A month earlier, a Russian drone destined for Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people.
There has been an uptick in civilian deaths in the Russia-Ukraine war this summer, although both sides deny targeting civilians.
On Friday, a drone strike hit a shopping centre in southeastern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, causing a fire and several injuries, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.
A separate attack on a site hosting a defence industry event near Kyiv killed at least 10 people and wounded nearly 100 others.