Mutual bombardment between Russia and Ukraine. More than 400 marches target Moscow
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced on Monday that more than 400 Ukrainian drones were launched towards the Russian capital area overnight, noting that most of them were intercepted, while Ukrainian authorities announced that Russia launched one of its fiercest missile attacks on the capital Kyiv and targeted a commercial cargo ship.
Sobyanin explained in a press release that air defenses were able to neutralize most of the planes at long distances, while shooting down 85 drones while they were approaching the capital Moscow. For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that its forces have shot down 381 Ukrainian drones over different areas of the country since last night.
Cargo ship targeted and 6 sailors killed in Black Sea
The Ukrainian navy announced that Russian cruise missiles hit the commercial cargo ship "Golden Leo", which flies the flag of Guinea-Bissau, as it left the fighting zone loaded with grain, killing 6 sailors and injuring two others, in addition to 4 remaining missing and rescuing 8 others.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sepyha revealed that the crew of the targeted ship included members of both Syrian and Indian nationalities.
Ukrainian transport authorities said the attack came hours after Moscow fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at the capital Kyiv and its environs.
Ballistic bombardment targets Kyiv
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Russia fired more than 40 missiles, including 25 ballistic missiles, at Kyiv, killing one person and wounding 16 others.
Local authorities reported that 7 more people were killed in Russian strikes targeting the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions.
On the other hand, the governor of Russia's Kursk region, Alexander Khinstein, said one person was killed following a Ukrainian strike on the border region.
Local sources confirmed that a Ukrainian drone attack targeted a station belonging to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, in addition to targeting two warehouses belonging to the Russian e-commerce company "Wildberries" and an oil depot on the outskirts of Moscow.
Damage on the outskirts of Moscow
The governor of the region around Moscow, Andrei Vorobyov, announced that 10 people were injured and residential buildings were damaged in the towns of Podolsk, Domodedovo and Odintsovo as a result of the downing of Ukrainian drones. Ukraine's air force reported that it was able to jam and shoot down 81 of the 94 drones launched by Russia overnight.
A report issued by the Institute for the Study of War confirmed that Russian forces intensified the use of ballistic missiles during the month of July at rates exceeding their monthly production, relying on their strategic stockpile to achieve higher hit rates. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense denied targeting civilians, stressing that its strikes were limited to port infrastructure and military logistics centers in Odesa and Chornomorsk.