Key facts
- Russia conducted widespread aerial attacks across Ukraine, resulting in at least seven civilian deaths and 51 injuries.
- Key Ukrainian cities including Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Kremenchuk were targeted.
- Ukraine's air defenses intercepted a significant portion of the incoming Russian munitions.
- A drone that entered Romanian airspace from Moldova was shot down by a NATO fighter jet.
- The ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih plant, a major steel producer, sustained damage and casualties.
Russia launched a series of aerial attacks across Ukraine on August 16, targeting multiple regions including Kyiv, Poltava, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. The assaults involved a mix of Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles, Iskander-M ballistic missiles, X-59/69 guided air-to-ground missiles, and numerous long-range attack drones, including Shahed-type drones. Ukrainian air defenses managed to intercept a substantial number of the incoming threats, but strikes still resulted in civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure. In Kyiv, three people were injured and fires broke out in commercial and residential buildings. The city of Kryvyi Rih reported two deaths and 14 injuries, with a major steel producer, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, also hit, causing one fatality and 13 injuries among its staff. Across other regions like Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Odesa, and Mykolaiv, further casualties and damage were reported. In a separate incident, a Spanish F-18 fighter jet on a NATO mission downed a drone over Romania after it entered the country's airspace from Moldova.