A Russian drone attack killed a mother and her 9-year-old son in Ukraine’s Sumy region as new U.N. figures showed July became the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since March 2022, with 437 killed and 2,610 wounded.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Russian attacks across Ukraine killed civilians and damaged homes and infrastructure Friday as newly released United Nations figures showed the toll on noncombatants has risen sharply during an intensified wave of strikes.
A 29-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son were killed when Russian jet-powered drones struck their home in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region early Friday, according to Ukrainian officials.
Four other people were wounded in the attack, including the boy’s father and grandmother. Both were hospitalized with severe burns, regional military administration chief Oleh Hryhorov said.
The strike came one day after the United Nations reported that July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since March 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
At least 437 civilians were killed and another 2,610 wounded during July, according to the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv.
The number of casualties was 70% higher than in July 2025 and 30% above the June 2026 total.
“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 U.N. 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.”
Since the invasion began more than four years ago, U.N. monitors have documented at least 16,874 civilian deaths, including 820 children.
Another 51,273 civilians have been wounded, including 3,126 children.
The latest attacks extended well beyond Sumy.
In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb destroyed six floors of a 10-story apartment building, killing one person and injuring 16 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy said Russia is now launching approximately 220 glide bombs each day against communities near the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Russian forces have increasingly relied on heavy glide bombs, including weapons weighing approximately 3,000 pounds, or 1,300 kilograms, along with artillery, missiles and drones to strike populated areas and defensive positions.
The attacks can devastate buildings and entire sections of towns before Russian infantry units move against exposed Ukrainian defenders.
Repeated bombardment has left numerous settlements near the front increasingly uninhabitable.
Zelenskyy said Russia struck 12 Ukrainian regions overnight, leaving dozens of people wounded.
Moscow also reported attacks against Ukrainian maritime and transportation infrastructure.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces struck two tugboats in the Black Sea that were escorting cargo vessels carrying Western weapons for Ukraine.
The ministry also said Russian drones hit the railway station at Ukraine’s southern port of Izmail overnight, alleging that the facility was being used to transport military cargo and fuel for Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its own campaign of long-range attacks against targets deep inside Russia.
Ukrainian forces struck the Russian port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, causing a brief fire, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said.
Located more than 800 kilometers, or roughly 500 miles, from Ukraine, Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest oil and natural gas export terminals.
The port has repeatedly been targeted by Ukrainian drones this summer as Kyiv attempts to disrupt Russia’s energy exports, which provide Moscow with significant revenue used to finance the war.
Ukraine also carried out another strike on property belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer.
Kyiv says the company assists in supplying Russia’s military.
The latest strike damaged a wall at a Wildberries warehouse in the Tver region north of Moscow, according to acting regional governor Vitaly Korolyov.
Wildberries described the damage as “insignificant” and said merchandise stored inside the facility was unaffected.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air-defense systems intercepted 553 Ukrainian drones overnight across 18 Russian regions, occupied Crimea and areas over the Azov and Black seas.
The scale of the overnight drone activity also affected NATO territory.
NATO fighter aircraft shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace early Friday, according to Latvia’s military and an alliance official.
Latvian authorities did not identify the drone’s origin but said it entered the country “as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare.”
Several drones have previously crossed into Latvia during the war. Many have been believed to be Ukrainian drones knocked off their intended routes by Russian electronic-jamming systems.
Two Italian Eurofighter jets were scrambled in response to Friday’s incident, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said.
One of the Italian aircraft shot down the drone.
Two Turkish fighter jets were also deployed, Hart said.
Authorities warned residents across five municipalities in eastern Latvia about the airspace threat and instructed them to take shelter.
A separate drone incident was reported Friday in neighboring Romania.
Romania’s Defense Ministry said a drone crashed in woodland in eastern Tulcea County approximately 5 kilometers, or 3.1 miles, from the Ukrainian border.
Romanian military radar did not detect the aircraft because it was flying at a “very low” altitude, according to the ministry.
Officials did not identify the drone’s origin.
The incidents in Latvia and Romania underscore the continuing risk that the heavy use of drones and electronic warfare near Ukraine’s borders can spill into neighboring NATO countries, even when the origin or intended destination of an aircraft is not immediately known.
Inside Ukraine, however, the new U.N. figures show civilians are bearing an increasingly heavy cost as both the frequency and intensity of Russian strikes rise.
July’s 437 civilian deaths and 2,610 injuries marked the highest monthly casualty level recorded by U.N. monitors since the opening weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Friday’s death of the 29-year-old mother and her 9-year-old son in Sumy added two more civilians to that growing toll as large-scale drone, missile, artillery and glide-bomb attacks continued across the country.
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