Civilian deaths mounted as Russia continued to press its offensive in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have captured two more villages, as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to retaliate with further attacks inside Russia.
Ukraine did not immediately comment directly on claims by the Russian Defense Ministry that its forces had on July 26 captured Zeleniy Hai in the Donetsk region and the village of Malyivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Zelenskyy did acknowledge heavy fighting along the frontlines in Ukraine's eastern regions, but he also spoke of “successful actions by our units” in the embattled Sumy region and said his forces were “eliminating the occupiers in the border areas.”
Reports from both sides could not immediately be verified.
Zelenskyy also said the focal point of Russian assaults remained near the important logistics hub of Pokrovsk, a city with a prewar population of more than 60,000 but which now is mostly in ruins from Russian air strikes.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskiy identified Pokrovsk as an area requiring "special attention" amid constant Russian attacks.
Military spokesman Viktor Trehubov told Ukrainian TV that Russian forces were attacking Pokrovsk in "a small torrent...that simply does not stop"
The violence comes three days after Ukrainian and Russian officials held a third direct meeting in Istanbul amid efforts to end the conflict, which ignited into a full-blown war following Russia's invasion of February 2022.
Those talks made progress on further swaps of prisoners and the remains of fallen soldiers, but no breakthroughs were apparent on efforts to reach a cease-fire.
US President Donald Trump, showing frustration at Russian leader Vladimir Putin's refusal to agree to a cease-fire, in mid-July threatened to impose new sanctions on Moscow if it doesn’t reach a deal with Kyiv by early September.
In an interview with Fox News broadcast on July 26, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump is becoming "increasingly frustrated" that despite having good interactions with Putin during phone calls, "it never leads anywhere."
Trump is "losing his patience. He's losing his willingness to continue to wait for the Russian side to do something here, to bring an end to this war," Rubio said, adding that there was "no way that Putin could have sustained this war without Chinese support, particularly buying his oil."
Zelenskyy has said Russia's latest attacks were a "response" to Kyiv's proposal of an immediate cease-fire during the peace talks.
Zelenskyy vowed to retaliate with further attacks on military sites inside Russia after civilian deaths mounted on July 26 in multiple Ukrainian regions under the fire of Russian artillery and drone strikes.
“Today, unfortunately, there were numerous Russian strikes on our cities and our communities: Sumy – including Ukrainian energy infrastructure, as well as Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson region, and Donetsk region,” Zelenskyy said in his July 26 video address.
"Such strikes certainly cannot be left without response, and Ukrainian long-range drones ensure one," he posted separately on X.
"Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, and Russian airfields must see that Russia's own war is now hitting them back with real consequences,” Zelenskyy posted.
Zelenskyy said he instructed officials to be more active in attracting external funding for drones.
"I also instructed government officials and the defense minister to more actively review all our agreements we have with our partners -- the ones we must implement fully, but which, unfortunately, are currently still only partially being carried out," he added without being specific.
Zelenskyy has announced that his country had secured funding for three US-made Patriot missile defense systems and is negotiating for seven more of the air-defense systems, part of a new agreement that enables European allies to buy US weaponry for Kyiv.
Following Zelenskyy's latest remarks, Russian authorities reported attacks inside the country.
Aleksandr Khinshtein, governor of Russia's Kursk region, on July 26 claimed that a Ukranian drone had killed one person in the village of Obesta, about 5 kilometers from the border.
And authorities in the Volgograd region said falling debris from destroyed Ukrainian drones disrupted railway power supply near the border area. Traffic at the city's airport was also disrupted, officials said.
Civilian Casualties Mount
Following Russia’s large-scale overnight attacks on Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions -- which left multiple people dead and injured -- the head of the regional military administration, Serhiy Lysak, said the Russian military attacked the Nikopol and Synelnykove districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Lysak said a 66-year-old man died in the Nikopol region, while three people were injured in the Synelnykove district.
Serhiy Gorbunov, military administrator of the strategic frontline city of Kostyantynivka, wrote on social media that a civilian was killed as the result of a drone attack and urged residents to evacuate away from oncoming Russian forces.
“We urge all residents to take care of themselves and their loved ones! Do not ignore the threat — evacuate to safer regions in a timely manner,” he wrote.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said five people -- including three emergency workers -- were injured while responding to an earlier strike. Sumy military Governor Oleh Hryhorov said three people were hurt in air attacks in the northeast Ukrainian region.
Russia denies targeting civilian areas despite widespread evidence of such attacks.
