LONDON — No less than seven individuals, together with two youngsters, had been killed by a Russian drone strike within the northeastern Ukrainian metropolis of Kharkiv on Sunday evening, in line with native officers.
Serhiy Bolvinov, the top of Kharkiv Nationwide Police’s investigations unit, mentioned in a submit to Fb that 5 Shahed strike drones hit an condominium constructing at daybreak.
“A whole household died in an condominium on the fifth flooring,” Bolvinov mentioned.
Ukraine’s air power mentioned Russia launched 140 drones and 4 missiles within the nation in a single day into Monday morning, of which 88 drones had been shot down or suppressed.
Missile and drone impacts had been reported throughout 25 places in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kyiv areas, the air power mentioned.
Zaporizhzhia Gov. Ivan Fedorov mentioned in a submit to Telegram that at the very least three individuals had been killed and at the very least 23 individuals injured by missile strikes within the southern area.
A resident appears at an condominium constructing hit by a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 18, 2025.
Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters
The most recent assaults come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to fulfill President Donald Trump and a number of European leaders on the White Home on Monday, the place Trump has mentioned he hopes his Ukrainian counterpart will comply with a deal to finish Russia’s conflict.
“This was a fully demonstrative and cynical Russian strike,” Zelenskyy wrote in a submit to Telegram. “They know that right now in Washington there’s a assembly to finish the conflict.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy added, “will kill demonstratively to maintain pressuring Ukraine, Europe and to humiliate diplomatic efforts. That’s the reason we’re so eagerly awaiting assist to cease the killings. That’s the reason dependable safety ensures are wanted. That’s the reason Russia should not obtain any reward for this conflict. The conflict have to be ended. And it’s Moscow that should hear the phrase ‘cease’.”
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s influential chief of workers, wrote on Telegram of the newest spherical of strikes, “Russia continues to intentionally kill civilians.”
“That is why Putin would not wish to cease the hearth — he likes to shell peaceable cities and discuss wanting to finish the conflict,” Yermak wrote. “We do not see this want but.”
Each side have continued their long-range strike campaigns all through Trump’s efforts to craft a ceasefire and peace deal to finish the battle, which started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
By way of July, Russia launched a document 6,443 drones and missiles into Ukraine, in line with knowledge printed by the Ukrainian air power, with a day by day common of 201 drones and 6 missiles.
July’s month-to-month whole was the very best of the conflict to this point, and round 13% greater than had been recorded in June.
No less than 286 individuals had been killed and 1,388 injured in Ukraine in July, making final month the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since Could 2022, in line with knowledge printed by the United Nations’ Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
A drone view exhibits smoke rising from broken buildings on the web site of a Russian drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 18, 2025.
Kharkiv Regional Prosecutorâs /through Reuters
Up to now in August, the size of Russian strikes has diminished. As of Monday, Ukraine’s air power had recorded 1,344 drone and 27 missile launches by Russia in August — a median of round 74 drones and multiple missile per day to this point this month.
Russia’s Protection Ministry, in the meantime, has claimed to have shot down 1,740 Ukrainian drones to this point in August, at a day by day common of round 96 per day.
The Protection Ministry in Moscow mentioned its forces downed at the very least 24 Ukrainian drones in a single day into Monday.
