The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of significantly escalating attacks on civilian areas across Russian territory and Russian-controlled regions, claiming that 433 civilians were harmed during the week of July 13–19, 2026. According to an official statement released by the ministry, Russian authorities alleged that Kyiv intensified strikes on civilian targets after losing ground on the battlefield, redirecting its military capabilities toward what Moscow described as terrorist attacks against the civilian population using military equipment supplied by Western countries.
According to the ministry, more than 1,000 strikes on civilian targets were recorded per day during the reporting period. Russian officials stated that Ukrainian armed formations fired at least 7,168 munitions at civilian targets over the seven-day period. The ministry claimed that a total of 433 civilians were harmed, including 69 people killed, among them two children, while 364 others were injured, including 12 children. Moscow stated that the highest number of civilian casualties was recorded in the Belgorod, Moscow, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as well as in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). According to the statement, Ukrainian forces deliberately targeted densely populated civilian areas in an effort to inflict maximum damage.
The Russian Foreign Ministry highlighted several incidents that it described as the most serious attacks during the week. It claimed that a drone raid on the Moscow region left 62 civilians injured and one person dead. Another alleged drone attack in the Tambov region reportedly killed seven civilians and wounded 25 others. Separate UAV attacks in the Moscow region were said to have killed three civilians while injuring five people, including two children. In the village of Fedorovka in the DPR, Russian officials alleged that a drone strike destroyed a private home and killed an entire family of four, including a 10-year-old child.
The ministry further claimed that five civilians, including three children, were injured in a drone attack on the settlement of Razumnoye in the Belgorod Region. In the village of Voznesenka in the Zaporizhzhia Region, officials alleged that a 78-year-old woman was killed and three civilians were wounded after a drone struck a private residence. Another reported drone attack in the same village allegedly killed one civilian while injuring his wife and their nine-year-old child.
According to the statement, shelling from a Grad multiple launch rocket system in the settlement of Suzemka in the Bryansk Region killed a 15-year-old girl and her grandmother. Russian authorities also claimed that the chief engineer of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Energodar. The ministry reported that three ambulance crew members were wounded during a drone strike in Gorlovka in the DPR, while two children were injured after a drone detonated in Shebekino in the Belgorod Region.
The statement also alleged that a firefighter-rescuer was killed during a drone attack in the settlement of Belaya Berezka in the Bryansk Region. In another incident, an 88-year-old woman was reportedly injured when a drone struck her private home in Vasilyevka, Bryansk Region. Russian officials further claimed that three EMERCOM rescuers were injured during a drone attack in Lugansk in the LPR.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that photographic evidence documenting the reported incidents has been published along with a map showing alleged shelling of civilian targets between July 13 and July 19, 2026. According to the ministry, the data was compiled by the Office of the Ambassador-at-Large for Crimes of the Kyiv Regime with assistance from the Laboratory for Intelligent Data Analysis in International Relations at MGIMO University.
Ukraine has consistently rejected previous Russian allegations that it deliberately targets civilians, maintaining that its military operations are directed at military objectives. Independent verification of the claims made in the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement was not immediately available.
