Russian attacks kill 10 in Ukraine as Zelenskyy says Moscow is getting
more North Korean missiles
[August 12, 2026]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukrainian cities with missiles,
drones and glide bombs Tuesday, killing at least 10 civilians, officials
said, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow is getting new
military help from North Korea for its more than 4-year-old invasion.
Zelenskyy said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North
Korea in an overnight attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia,
where a company said seven workers at its steel plant were killed and 21
injured.
Three more people, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian
drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities
said.
In addition to the ballistic missiles, North Korea is preparing to
deploy more of its troops to Russia, Zelenskyy said late Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2024, pledging mutual aid if
either country faces aggression.
Kim has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of weapons to support
Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Some experts say the engagement
with Moscow is helping improve North Korea’s military capabilities, and
Zelenskyy said the battlefield experience would help Pyongyang menace
other countries in its region.
Ukraine says Russia is poised to escalate the war
Ukraine says Russia is scaling up its production of ballistic missiles,
aiming to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Patriot air defense
interceptors that can stop them, and claims Moscow is preparing to
recruit more troops for a new push on the front line that stretches
1,250 kilometers (775 miles) along eastern and southern Ukraine.
“Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production,
bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of
this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,”
Zelenskyy said on social media.
In an unusual step, Ukraine's air force didn't say in its daily report
how many missiles Russia launched overnight. It was not clear whether
the omission was deliberate, and Kyiv officials made no immediate
comment.
U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to stop the war have fizzled as Washington
grew frustrated with the lack of progress and its attention turned to
the Iran war.
In an indication that Putin is determined to press on with the invasion,
Russia’s highest court on Monday ordered that Yabloko, the only
political party opposing the war, to be excluded from the ballot in the
Sept. 18-20 parliamentary election.
“The Kremlin will not enter serious negotiations or make meaningful
compromises on its demands as long as Putin believes that he has a
viable military path to achieving his full objectives,” the Institute
for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an analysis
Monday.
“Ukraine’s Patriot shortages offer Russia an opportunity to cause very
serious damage to Ukraine over the coming winter and will therefore
contribute to delaying meaningful negotiations and protracting the war,”
it said.
Russia hits the grounds of a Kyiv children's hospital
Russian forces also struck parts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv,
overnight, according to officials. One strike hit the grounds of a
children’s hospital, leaving two craters and shattering windows, the
State Emergency Service said. Children and medical workers were in bomb
shelters and nobody was hurt, it added.
At another location in Kyiv, a Russian strike started a fire in a
warehouse that spread across about 1,200 square meters (nearly 13,000
square feet), according to emergency officials.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces overnight struck “military
industrial facilities and transport and logistics centers” in Kyiv and
Zaporizhzhia with “ground-based precision weapons.”
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks on during his meeting
with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit
in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
It said in a statement that it hit civilian storage facilities
housing drones in Kyiv and a metallurgical plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Metinvest, a major Ukrainian mining and metals company with
operations in Zaporizhzhia, said seven of its steel plant employees
died as staff tried to reach shelters after a warning of an incoming
ballistic missile.
The company, which employs tens of thousands of people, said in a
statement that the attack damaged its blast furnace and other
equipment and forced the plant to shut down.
Russia targeted Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia with Zircon anti-ship missiles
and Iskander ballistic missiles, while launching 120 long-range
strike drones across the country, Ukraine’s air force said.
Russia's biggest e-commerce company hit again
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses
overnight intercepted nearly 400 Ukrainian drones over 14 regions
and Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed from Kyiv in
2014.
Russia’s biggest online retailer, Wildberries, said its logistical
facilities in the Voronezh region near the Ukrainian border came
under attack and caught fire. It added that the fire was
extinguished and goods stored there were “largely undamaged.”
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Wildberries warehouses and Russian oil
facilities in what it says is a strategy to compel Putin to
negotiate an end to the invasion.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck an oil refinery in
the city of Orsk in Russia’s Orenburg region near the border with
Kazakhstan, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Ukraine, causing
a fire.
The refinery, with an annual processing capacity of about 44 million
barrels of crude oil, produces gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel,
among other products. The extent of the damage was being assessed,
the military said.
Meanwhile, Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said its navy
destroyed two drones drifting in the Black Sea about 90 nautical
miles (166 kilometers) from the port of Constanta.
The Gerbera-type drones were neutralized by divers using controlled
detonations, and some pieces were recovered, the ministry said,
adding that Ukraine said the drones were not theirs.
UN says over 16,000 civilians are being held by Russia
The United Nations, meanwhile, estimates that more than 16,000
civilians detained by Russia during the war are still being
“deprived of their liberty,” with many held incommunicado and on
grounds that don’t comply with international law.
“Widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment” of both
Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war by Russia are
continuing, including sexual violence, said Claudia Fuentes Julio,
the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights.
She spoke at an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council on
Monday to spotlight the plight of civilians and soldiers taken
following the Russia invasion.
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Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
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