Ukraine launched a large-scale aerial attack targeting industrial infrastructure in Russia’s southwestern Samara region on Saturday, according to Russian officials. Ivan Noskov, the head of Samara city, stated that air defense forces repelled a "massive" missile attack, resulting in "localized damage" to industrial sites. Medical assistance was provided to those injured, though specific details were not immediately available.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Kyiv's forces had successfully struck the Progress Center in Samara, which operates under the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The facility is involved in the production of rocket technology and electronics. Zelenskyy indicated that Ukraine's domestically produced Flamingo missiles were used in the strike, hitting a site located about 900 kilometers (560 miles) from the Ukrainian border. He also reported that Russia's Savasleyka air base, situated approximately 700 kilometers (430 miles) from the front lines, was also targeted.
"Peace is needed, and this must be evident in Russia — through concrete damage to specific facilities," Zelenskyy stated on social media.
Ukraine has increased its long-range aerial assaults on Russian military industries and energy facilities in an effort to diminish Moscow's war funding and to demonstrate the war's impact within Russia. While most Ukrainian strikes have historically been within a 200-kilometer range, longer-range attacks have escalated significantly this year. Data from ACLED, an independent conflict monitor, indicates that such strikes in July were three times more frequent than in January. These deep strikes into Russian territory are forcing the Russian military to extend its air defense coverage over a wider area.
Russia's Ministry of Defense reported intercepting 598 Ukrainian drones across 19 Russian regions, as well as over the Black and Azov Seas and the annexed Crimean peninsula. Separately, in the town of Shatura in the Moscow region, a Ukrainian drone attack on a private home resulted in injuries to two people, including a nine-year-old child, according to local Governor Andrey Vorobyov.
In other incidents, a Russian strike on an apartment block in Marhanets, southeastern Ukraine, killed a three-month-old baby and injured 11 people, officials reported. Ukraine's Air Force stated that Russia launched 152 drones over Ukraine on Saturday, with 124 being destroyed. Russia's Ministry of Defense also announced strikes targeting warehouses and infrastructure at the Ukrainian ports of Odesa, Izmail, and Yuzhnyi.