A fresh wave of Russian missile and drone strikes overnight left more than 20 people dead and scores wounded across Ukraine just hours after US President Donald Trump told Vladimir Putin he had 10-12 days to stop the attacks or face stiff sanctions and tariffs.
Trump said on July 28 that he was "disappointed" with the Russian leader and that he was shortening a 50-day deadline he had given Russia to come to a peace deal with Ukraine two weeks ago. The move meant Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by around August 7-9.
The Kremlin has not commented directly on the new deadline, though former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy head of the country’s Security Council, said on July 29 that Trump should stop “playing the ultimatum game with Russia.”
In one of the deadliest single strikes, Russia hit the Zaporizhzhya region with FAB-type guided aerial bombs, Ivan Fedorov, the head of the region's military administration, said on July 29.
Ukraine's Penitentiary Service said the Russian strikes targeted a correctional colony in the village of Bilenke in the Zaporizhzhya region, killing at least 17 people and injuring 82 more persons.
The blast destroyed prison buildings and damaged adjacent private homes.
"All the injured are receiving emergency medical care," Fedorov said.
In the town of Kamyanske in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, a missile strike damaged several buildings, including a maternity hospital and another department. The strike left two civilians dead and five wounded, including two women in critical condition, one of whom is pregnant.
Another attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region killed at least one more civilian as drones and glide bombs hit residential areas and public infrastructure.
Ukraine Strikes Back: Explosions Rock Russian Territory
While Ukraine mourned its dead, its military responded with long-range strikes across several Russian regions overnight.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it launched dozens of drones and missiles targeting military infrastructure, airbases, and fuel depots in Rostov, Kursk, and Belgorod.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it intercepted 74 drones over five regions.
Significant damage was confirmed in Salsk, in the Rostov region, where debris from a downed drone landed on a railway station. A fire broke out in a freight train, disrupting railway operations.
A passenger train was evacuated, and some trains experienced delays. The falling debris also hit a car, killing its driver. Nearby homes had windows shattered and roofs damaged.
As the war grinds on well into its fourth year, Ukrainian officials and human rights groups have continuously called out Russia for its strikes on civilian targets, classifying them as war crimes.
Despite mounting evidence of hospitals, residential buildings, power plants, and other civilian infrastructure being hit, the Kremlin continues to claim that its forces do not deliberately strike such targets.
