Attacks by Russia and Ukraine deep behind each other's lines killed at least eight people on July 23, pushing the civilian toll to its highest level since 2022, even as the front line itself remains largely static.
Attacks by Russia and Ukraine deep behind each other's lines killed at least eight people on July 23, including a child. Four people died in Ukraine, and another four in Russia and Russian-annexed Crimea, according to official sources on both sides. Observers say the strikes have pushed the civilian toll from deep-rear attacks to its highest level since 2022 — even as the front line itself has remained largely unchanged for a long stretch of time.
On the evening of July 22 into July 23, Russian drones struck petrol stations in the Kovpakivskyi and Zarichnyi districts of Sumy, sparking large fires. Strikes on civilian sites like this — fuel stations, warehouses, residential areas — have been recorded regularly in Ukraine's border and rear regions throughout July.
On Russian territory, debris from a downed Ukrainian drone sparked a fire at a private home in a Voronezh suburb, killing a three-year-old boy; his parents and one other person were injured to varying degrees. The regional governor said 36 drones were shot down over Voronezh Oblast that evening. The same day, explosions and communications disruptions were reported across occupied Crimea, from Feodosia to Yevpatoria and Sevastopol, where drones reportedly targeted energy infrastructure and air defence positions.
What stands out is the nature of these losses: even as the line of contact has barely moved for a long time, both sides keep escalating strikes on targets deep in the rear — energy, logistics and military-industrial infrastructure. It is this trend, rather than shifts on the battlefield, that increasingly defines the war's daily casualty count.
Volunteers Support Ukraine documents these losses on both sides of the front line every day, because an objective picture of what this phase of the war actually looks like matters just as much as news from the front. The organization helps people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow, regardless of which side of the border the latest grim report comes from.
