Russia conducted fresh overnight aerial attacks on Ukraine, including a strike that killed two people at a steel plant in Kryvyi Rih and damaged key production facilities. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih said "key production facilities in the power generation and blast furnace sectors have been damaged, and the plant’s production processes have been partially halted" [1, 2, 3].
Ukrainian forces launched a large drone attack on the Moscow region, hitting a warehouse belonging to Russia’s top online retailer Wildberries. The attack caused a large fire across about 200,000 square meters and killed at least one person, an 83-year-old man in the Moscow region, according to local officials [1, 4, 2, 3]. Governor Andrey Vorobyov called it "one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory" [4]. The warehouse is reported either near Koledino, 25 km from Moscow city center, or in the Podolsk area about 45 km south of Moscow, depending on sources [1, 4, 2].
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported about 600 Ukrainian drones were launched toward Moscow overnight, with roughly 201 destroyed in air defenses. Russia’s defense ministry claimed to have shot down hundreds of Ukrainian drones, with numbers ranging from 822 up to 1,478, plus several cruise missiles during the attack waves [1, 4, 2]. Ukrainian strikes killed at least six people in Russia, including the elderly man noted above [4, 2].
Russian strikes also hit multiple Ukrainian cities including Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk, causing at least three deaths and over 10 injuries, though some sources report up to seven fatalities across Ukraine [1, 4, 2]. Russian forces have intensified attacks on Ukraine’s largest grain export port and steel plants, while Ukrainian forces targeted Russian logistics hubs, retail warehouses, and military infrastructure [1, 4, 2, 3].
Separately, an F-18 Spanish fighter on NATO patrol shot down a drone breaching Romanian airspace near the Ukraine-Moldova border early on August 16. NATO said the drone appears to be Russian [1, 4, 2, 3].
The overnight attacks reflect one of the most intense waves since the conflict escalated, with heavy material damage and multiple casualties on both sides. Further strikes and counterstrikes remain ongoing.
