KYIV, Ukraine (AP) 鈥� Russian jet-powered drones struck a home in northern Ukraine on Friday, killing a 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son, officials said.
The strike came a day after the United Nations said July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the weeks following Moscow’s of its neighbor more than four years ago.
At least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 wounded last month, the U.N. monitoring mission in Kyiv said, as Russia escalated its of Ukrainian towns and cities. That was 70% higher than in July last year and 30% up on June of this year.
Overall, since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, U.N. human rights monitors say the war has killed at least 16,874 civilians, including 820 children, and wounded 51,273, including 3,126 children.
鈥淓very month this year the number of killed and injured civilians has increased. That trend accelerated sharply in July,鈥� said Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv. 鈥淭he number of civilian casualties in July was the highest we documented in a single month since March 2022.鈥�
The Russian strike in northern Ukraine鈥檚 Sumy region early Friday also wounded four other people, including the dead boy鈥檚 father and grandmother, who were hospitalized with severe burns, the regional military administration chief Oleh Hryhorov said.
Russia’s top diplomat says Moscow will intensify its aerial attacks
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow is planning to escalate its strikes on Ukraine, even as to end the war are set to continue.
鈥淲e will use much harsher methods to destroy everything that feeds Kyiv鈥檚 war machine from the West,鈥� Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state TV broadcast Friday, referring to military aid Kyiv receives from abroad.
Officials in Washington said last month that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump鈥檚 main envoys, would sometime in the future. No date for the trip is publicly known, as the U.S. focuses on the .
Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump, but Putin has refused, demanding a comprehensive peace agreement first, and Lavrov said that position hasn鈥檛 changed.
鈥淲e will only stop when there鈥檚 a long-term, reliable and sustainable settlement,鈥� he said.
Russian glide bombs hit residential areas near front line
In Ukraine鈥檚 eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb demolished six floors of a 10-story apartment block, killing one person and wounding 16 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Russia is launching around 220 every day against settlements near the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in a social media post Friday.
Russian forces crush settlements with the brute force of 3,000-pound (1,300-kilo) glide bombs, artillery, missiles and drones, then send in infantry units to attack the exposed defenders. The tactic has rendered many towns and villages uninhabitable.
In addition, Russian forces struck two tugboats in the Black Sea that were escorting cargo ships carrying Western weapons for Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
It also said that its drones overnight hit the railway station in Ukraine鈥檚 southern port of Izmail that it said is used for transporting military cargo and fuel for the Ukrainian armed forces.
In all, Russia attacked 12 Ukrainian regions overnight, wounding dozens of people, Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian drones strike a major port north of Moscow
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, extended their long-range against Russian infrastructure, hitting the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region north of Moscow and starting a brief fire, its governor Alexander Drozdenko said.
Ust-Luga is one of Russia鈥檚 largest oil and gas export terminals located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Ukraine.
It has been a frequent target of Ukrainian drone attacks this summer, as Kyiv seeks to undermine that provide Moscow with vital revenue for its war effort.
Ukraine also launched another attack on the premises of , Russia鈥檚 biggest online retailer, which Kyiv says helps supply the Russian military.
The attack damaged a wall of a Wildberries warehouse in the Tver region north of Moscow, the region鈥檚 acting governor, Vitaly Korolyov, said.
Wildberries reported 鈥渋nsignificant damage鈥� and said the goods stored at the site were not damaged.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday its air defenses overnight intercepted 553 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the waters of the Azov and the Black seas.
NATO warplanes shoot down a drone over Latvia
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace in the early hours of Friday, the Latvian army and an official for the military alliance said.
Latvian authorities did not say what the origin of the drone was, but said it had entered Latvia 鈥渁s a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare.鈥�
Several drones have previously crossed the border into Latvia. Most of them are thought to be Ukrainian drones that strayed off course due to Russian electronic jamming.
Two Italian Eurofighter jets were scrambled to tackle the drone and one of them shot it down, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said.
Two Turkish fighter jets were also deployed, she said.
Residents in five municipalities in eastern Latvia were warned about the threat to airspace and told to take shelter.
Another drone crashed in woodland in Romania 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the border with Ukraine, the NATO member鈥檚 Defense Ministry said Friday.
Military radars did not detect the drone, which landed in eastern Tulcea County, because it was flying at a 鈥渧ery low鈥� altitude, it said without providing details about the drone鈥檚 origin.
The ministry said later that another drone was found Friday in the village of Plauru, also in Tulcea County, which is situated across the Danube River from Ukraine鈥檚 port of Izmail. A specialist team was deployed to the area, which was secured, it added.
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Associated Press reporters Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England contributed to this report.
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