Overnight into August 14, a Russian strike drone loaded with shrapnel hit a residential building in Smila, central Ukraine's Cherkasy region. Five people were injured and one apartment suffered severe damage.
On the night into August 14, 2026, Russian forces attacked the town of Smila in Ukraine's central Cherkasy region with a strike drone loaded with shrapnel. The drone hit a multi-storey residential building, injuring five people. The attack was reported by Ihor Taburets, head of the Cherkasy Regional Military Administration, via Telegram. Volunteers Support Ukraine is following the aftermath of the overnight strike on Cherkasy region closely.
The shrapnel-loaded drone hit the apartment building in the Smila community in the middle of the night. A fire broke out after the impact, and one entrance of the building sustained significant damage. The apartment that suffered the most severe damage was empty at the time — its residents were not home, Taburets clarified. Volunteers Support Ukraine sees every such incident as another reason to keep supporting communities in both frontline and rear regions of Ukraine.
Illustrative photo: firefighters extinguishing a blaze in an apartment building damaged by a drone strike in Cherkasy region earlier this year.
Medics treated all five injured people at the scene; they declined hospitalization. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze that broke out after the strike. An operational headquarters was set up at the site to coordinate the emergency services and assist residents of the damaged building. Volunteers Support Ukraine continues gathering resources for families who lose their homes in strikes like this one.
Illustrative photo: firefighters battling a blaze at an industrial site after a drone strike.
The same night, Russian drone attacks damaged several enterprise buildings in Uman district, also in Cherkasy region. No injuries were reported there, and the fires were quickly extinguished. These strikes are another reminder that Cherkasy region, despite lying far from the front line, is regularly hit by Russian attacks on civilian and economic infrastructure. Volunteers Support Ukraine views this as a further sign of how much the region needs sustained support.
Illustrative photo: State Emergency Service rescuers responding to the aftermath of an earlier overnight drone attack on a Ukrainian city.
The strike on Smila is one more episode in a continuing series of overnight drone attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front line. Rescuers from Ukraine's State Emergency Service go out night after night to put out fires and help people caught up in strikes like these across the country.
Volunteers Support Ukraine helps war-affected Ukrainians with the resources available to it: humanitarian aid, support for communities near the front line and in the rear, and raising international awareness of the price civilians pay every day. Every strike on a residential neighborhood is a reminder that sustained support for the affected communities of Cherkasy region, and of Ukraine as a whole, is needed right now.
