Russia and Ukraine traded overnight attacks into August 16, with Ukrainian officials reporting at least five killed in Russian strikes and damage to the country’s largest steel plant, while Russian officials said Ukrainian drones killed at least six and set warehouses ablaze.
In Kryviy Rih, Russian ballistic missiles struck the ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih steelworks, killing two people and injuring 14, Ukrainian officials said. The company said key production facilities in the power-generation and blast-furnace sectors were damaged and operations were partially halted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the cities of Kremenchuk and Kryviy Rih had been hit by ballistic missiles, adding: "Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure."
Russia's Defense Ministry said its strikes on Kyiv targeted a FirePoint facility producing components for Ukraine's Flamingo missiles and a factory making components for drones. Ukrainian officials said Russian strikes caused several fires in Kyiv, including at the Petrovka book market, and injured six people.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian strikes killed one person in Sumy and two people in the Zaporizhzhya region, according to Ukrainian officials.
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks of the war against Russia, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin saying around 600 drones had flown toward the capital since the evening of August 15. He said 201 were destroyed over the Moscow region. The Russian Defense Ministry separately reported that 822 Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight.
In the city of Podolsk, a drone strike caused a fire at a Wildberries warehouse in the Koledino industrial park, Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said. He said all employees had been evacuated and none were injured. Videos showed a large fire at the site being tackled by helicopters.
The Koledino facility is one of Wildberries' largest warehouses.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry said the Koledino facility was one of seven of Wildberries' 10 largest logistics centers that Ukraine had disabled. It said the warehouse, covering 250,000 square meters, was the company's largest by floor area. The claim could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian authorities allege that the e-commerce company’s warehouses are involved in supplying Russian military needs. Wildberries and the Kremlin have denied that.
A second fire was reported at a warehouse containing medicines in Domodedovo, south of Moscow. Analysts identified it as a storage facility at the Severnoye Domodedovo logistics center. Ukrainian monitoring channels published numerous videos showing burning warehouses.
Vorobyov said an elderly man was killed after a drone struck a private house in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region. He also reported six people injured.
Separately, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said three people were injured near the Moscow Ring Road, without specifying the circumstances.
In the southern Rostov region, Governor Yury Slyusar reported that five people were killed and one was injured in an attack. He did not specify what facility or area had been targeted.
Ukraine's military separately said it struck a facility producing missile fuel in the Rostov region. It was unclear whether the two reports referred to the same attack, and Russia did not immediately comment on the Ukrainian claim.
Elsewhere, a NATO F-18 fighter jet shot down an unidentified drone that entered Romanian airspace overnight, Romania's Defense Ministry said. Moldova's Defense Ministry said the drone had entered Moldovan airspace from Ukraine's Odesa region at about 4:31 a.m. on August 16, flown over several settlements and entered Romania about 20 minutes later. Moldova said it believed the drone had been involved in Russia's attacks on Ukraine. NATO later said the drone appeared to be Russian.
