Ukraine: Russian glide bomb attack on Zaporizhzhia kills 1, injures over 30

Russian warplanes dropped eight glide bombs on residential neighbourhoods in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia within 90 minutes, killing one person and injuring 31 others, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Monday, 3 August.

The strikes on Sunday evening killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl. The bombardment also damaged 22 apartment buildings across four districts of the city, Fedorov said.

Russia has relied extensively on glide bombs throughout the war, adapting Soviet-era bombs with guidance systems to create precision weapons capable of carrying up to 3,000 kg of explosives. The munitions leave massive craters, and Ukraine currently has no effective means of intercepting them.

The attack came amid continued Russian missile and drone strikes on civilian areas across Ukraine, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to renew his appeal for additional US-made Patriot air defence systems.

'The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages,' Zelenskyy wrote on social media. 'The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people — not sit in stockpiles.'

Patriot systems remain the only reliable defence against Russian ballistic missiles, but supplies have become increasingly constrained following the conflict involving Iran.

US President Donald Trump last week appeared to retreat from an earlier commitment to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot systems under licence. Speaking on Friday, he said discussions on the proposal were continuing and that no final decision had been taken.

Zelenskyy has also floated an alternative proposal under which Elon Musk would allow Ukraine to use the Starlink satellite network to target Russian ballistic missile launch sites, although officials have not indicated whether the idea is under consideration.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 181 long-range drones overnight. Air defences intercepted or electronically jammed 163 of them, but 14 drones struck targets at 13 locations.

The Russian defence ministry, meanwhile, claimed its forces had struck four bulk carriers transporting cargo for the Ukrainian military, including three in the Black Sea and one in the port of Mykolaiv. It did not provide further details.

Neither side's battlefield claims could be independently verified.

Russia also reported casualties from Ukrainian attacks. Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, said three people were killed and two injured in an overnight strike on the illegally annexed peninsula, without giving further details.

In Russia's Krasnodar region, governor Veniamin Kondratyev said three people were killed and 13 injured after debris from Ukrainian drones fell on the Black Sea town of Arkhipo-Osipovka.

Ukraine also targeted another warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, as part of a campaign that has hit more than a dozen of the company's distribution hubs. The company said a warehouse in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow, caught fire in the latest attack. Regional governor Alexander Avdeyev said three people were injured.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces also struck the Saratov oil refinery, the Engels military airfield and fuel storage tanks at the Lyudinovskaya oil depot in Russia's Kaluga region overnight.

Russia's defence ministry said its air defences intercepted 131 Ukrainian drones overnight across several regions, as well as over Crimea and the Black Sea.

With AP/PTI inputs