Russia and Ukraine report casualties as they continue to trade attacks

What the report says

Russia and Ukraine reported fresh casualties after another night of reciprocal strikes, according to Al Jazeera’s report published on 31 July 2026. The exchange of attacks affected areas in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region and in several parts of western and southern Russia, underscoring the continued reach of the war beyond the front line.

Ukrainian regional officials said two people were killed and three others wounded in a Russian strike on the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk. Local authorities also said multiple districts were hit repeatedly by drones, artillery and aerial bombs. On the Russian side, officials in Volgograd said a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and injured eight, while a separate strike in Rostov injured a woman in the town of Gukovo.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian long-range and mid-range strikes targeted Russian infrastructure, including logistics sites in several cities and an oil refinery in the Volgograd region. He said such attacks were aimed at weakening the Russian war effort. Al Jazeera also reported that Russian forces said they struck a vessel carrying military cargo near Odesa.

The report adds to a broader pattern of cross-border attacks on energy, transport and shipping infrastructure, which have disrupted fuel supplies and Black Sea trade routes. That context matters because both countries remain important agricultural exporters, and damage to ports and shipping corridors can affect grain flows and prices well beyond the region.