LONDON — No less than seven folks, together with two youngsters, had been killed by a Russian drone strike within the northeastern Ukrainian metropolis of Kharkiv on Sunday night time, in keeping 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 residence constructing at daybreak.
“A whole household died in an residence on the fifth flooring,” Bolvinov mentioned.
Ukraine’s air drive 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 drive mentioned.
Zaporizhzhia Gov. Ivan Fedorov mentioned in a submit to Telegram that at the least three folks had been killed and at the least 23 folks injured by missile strikes within the southern area.
A resident seems to be at an residence 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 bunch of European leaders on the White Home on Monday, the place Trump has mentioned he hopes his Ukrainian counterpart will conform to a deal to finish Russia’s conflict.
“This was a completely demonstrative and cynical Russian strike,” Zelenskyy wrote in a submit to Telegram. “They know that at this time 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 should be ended. And it’s Moscow that should hear the phrase ‘cease’.”
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s influential chief of employees, wrote on Telegram of the most recent spherical of strikes, “Russia continues to intentionally kill civilians.”
“That is why Putin would not need to cease the fireplace — he likes to shell peaceable cities and discuss wanting to finish the conflict,” Yermak wrote. “We do not see this need 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.
Via July, Russia launched a document 6,443 drones and missiles into Ukraine, in keeping with information printed by the Ukrainian air drive, with a every 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 folks had been killed and 1,388 injured in Ukraine in July, making final month the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since Might 2022, in keeping with information 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
Thus far in August, the size of Russian strikes has diminished. As of Monday, Ukraine’s air drive had recorded 1,344 drone and 27 missile launches by Russia in August — a mean of round 74 drones and a couple of 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 every day common of round 96 per day.
The Protection Ministry in Moscow mentioned its forces downed at the least 24 Ukrainian drones in a single day into Monday.
