【Epoch Times, August 12, 2026】 Ukrainian officials stated that on Tuesday (August 11), Russia launched missile, drones, and glide bombs attacks on multiple cities in Ukraine, resulting in at least 10 civilian casualties. At the same time, Ukrainian President Zelensky mentioned that Russia is receiving new military assistance from North Korea to support its ongoing invasion for over four years.
According to the Associated Press, Zelensky mentioned that Russian forces used North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles in a nighttime attack on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia. According to a local steel plant report, 7 workers were killed, and another 21 individuals were injured.
Authorities reported that in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, 3 people (including a 15-year-old boy) died in Russian drone and artillery attacks.
Zelensky also stated on Monday evening that apart from ballistic missiles, North Korea is preparing to deploy more troops to Russia.
Russian President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2024, pledging to provide assistance to each other in case of aggression.
Kim Jong-un had previously sent thousands of soldiers to Russia to provide aid and supply a significant amount of weapons to support Putin’s comprehensive invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine stated that Russia is expanding its production of ballistic missiles, intending to exploit Ukraine’s serious lack of the “Patriot” air defense interception system’s weakness to prepare for intensified attacks. Ukraine also claimed that Moscow is preparing to conscript more soldiers to launch a new offensive along the 1250-kilometer (775-mile) front spanning eastern and southern Ukraine.
Zelensky expressed on social media: “Every action taken by Russia, whether increasing the production of ballistic missiles, introducing North Korean equipment, or mobilizing troops, indicates that they are not preparing for peace but preparing for an escalation of war.”
On Monday, the Russian Supreme Court ruled to exclude the only anti-war party, Yabloko, from the candidate list for the parliamentary elections scheduled from September 18 to 20, demonstrating Putin’s determination to continue advancing the invasion.
The Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, pointed out in an analysis report that, “As long as Putin believes he has a viable military path to achieve all of his objectives, the Kremlin will not engage in serious peace talks or make substantial concessions on its demands.”
According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces also attacked parts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, that night. The Ukrainian State Emergency Service stated that one of the attacks hit the compound of a children’s hospital in Kyiv, creating two craters and shattering windows. The agency added that children and medical staff were in shelters at the time, so no injuries were reported.
Emergency department officials mentioned that in another location in Kyiv, a Russian attack triggered a warehouse fire, with an area of about 1200 square meters (nearly 13,000 square feet) ablaze. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that its troops conducted strikes with “ground-based precision-guided weapons” on military facilities and transportation and logistics centers in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia.
The Russian side claimed to have hit a civilian storage facility for drones in Kyiv and a metallurgical plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Metinvest, a large Ukrainian mining and metal company with operations in Zaporizhzhia, reported that after receiving a warning of a ballistic missile attack, 7 employees died while trying to seek shelter in the steel plant. The company, which employs tens of thousands of workers, stated that the attack damaged its blast furnaces and other equipment, forcing the factory to halt production.
The Ukrainian Air Force stated that Russia employed Zircon anti-ship missiles and Iskander ballistic missiles to attack Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, while launching 120 long-range attack drones across Ukraine.
Simultaneously, the Russian Defense Ministry mentioned that its air defense systems intercepted nearly 400 Ukrainian drones overnight in 14 regions and over Crimea. The Crimean Peninsula was illegally annexed by Moscow from Ukraine in 2014.
Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, reported in a statement that its logistics facility in the Voronezh region on the Russia-Ukraine border was attacked and caught fire. The company added that the fire has been extinguished, and the goods stored there were “largely undamaged.”
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries’ warehouses and also bombed Russian oil facilities; the Ukrainian side stated that these actions are aimed at forcing Putin to end the invasion war through negotiations.
The General Staff of Ukraine stated that its forces struck an oil refinery plant located in Orsk in the Orenburg region of Russia, near the Kazakhstan border, about 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away from Ukraine, causing a fire.
The refinery plant has an annual crude oil processing capacity of about 44 million barrels, producing gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel. The military stated that the degree of damage is currently being assessed.
The United Nations estimates that over 16,000 civilians detained by Russia during the war are still in a state of “deprived of liberty,” many of whom are cut off from communication with the outside world, with their detention reasons not in line with international law standards.
Claudia Fuentes Julio, Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, expressed that the “widespread and systematic torture and abuse,” including sexual violence, inflicted by Russia on detained civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine continue.