A Russian drone strike on a home-improvement hypermarket in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia wounded four people and ignited a large blaze on Friday morning, as Moscow pressed on with a fresh wave of attacks across the country. The strike hit an Epicentr store, setting fire to roughly 2,000 square metres of the building, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
The assault was part of a broader Russian campaign that also targeted the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. In the Kyiv region, one person was killed and two others wounded on Friday morning, local authorities reported. Warehouses, homes and apartment buildings were damaged in several districts around the capital, which has faced repeated drone attacks for a second consecutive day. Warehouse facilities in the Boryspil and Fastiv districts were among the sites hit on Thursday.
The escalation comes as both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up long-range strikes in recent months, increasingly targeting infrastructure far from the front lines. Ukraine has carried out repeated drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, energy facilities and logistics hubs, and has recently targeted warehouses operated by major Russian online retailers Wildberries and Ozon, accusing them of supporting Moscow's military.
Kherson residents urged to leave as attacks intensify
Further south, a Russian drone attack killed a man in Kherson on Friday, hours after authorities urged residents to leave amid increasingly intense strikes that threaten to leave the city without heating or electricity this winter. The 61-year-old man was seriously wounded in the city's Korabelnyi district and later died in hospital, according to Yaroslav Shanko, head of the city's military administration. Three other people were taken to hospital after a separate drone attack.
Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Thursday urged residents, "especially families with children and elderly people," to leave because of what he described as an "extremely difficult security situation." Russian forces remain positioned across the Dnipro River from Kherson, putting the city within easy range of drones, artillery and aerial bombs.
The city's combined heat and power plant was struck by four Russian guided aerial bombs overnight on Thursday. Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz said the attack caused critical damage and destroyed all of the heat- and power-generating equipment remaining at the plant, leaving it inoperable. Prokudin warned residents could be left without electricity or heating "not for hours or days but for a long period."
Since the beginning of July, Russia has dropped about 170 guided aerial bombs on the Kherson region – more than during the entire first six months of the year, according to Prokudin. Kherson has suffered a series of deadly drone attacks in recent days, including a strike on a minibus that killed four people on 19 August.
Russian troops captured Kherson shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine recaptured the city that November, but Russian forces remain on the opposite bank of the Dnipro, leaving it exposed to frequent shelling and drone attacks.
The renewed strikes come as European governments debate how to sustain support for Ukraine. The EU has recently revived debate on using frozen Russian assets to fund Kyiv's defence, while some member states have pushed for a more aggressive approach. Meanwhile, Ukraine's military has warned that Russia plans to call up hundreds of thousands of additional troops by 2027, a move that would prolong the conflict and increase pressure on European security.
As the war enters another winter, the humanitarian toll on Ukrainian cities like Kherson is mounting. The destruction of critical infrastructure raises the prospect of a harsh season for civilians, many of whom have already endured months of displacement and hardship. European leaders, from Berlin to Paris, are watching closely, aware that the outcome of this conflict will shape the continent's security architecture for decades.
