Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanged some of their heaviest drone and missile attacks in weeks on 9 August, with strikes reported on civilian vehicles, industrial targets and front-line positions on both sides of the border. In southern Ukraine, a Russian suicide drone struck a minibus outside Kherson, killing at least two people and injuring as many as 16, according to local authorities. A second drone attack wounded three police officers who had arrived to recover the bodies. Separate Russian strikes injured three civilians in Dnipro, and a FAB-3000 guided bomb hit the frontline city of Pokrovsk. Ukraine responded with long-range unmanned aircraft that penetrated roughly 1,200 km into Russian territory, hitting what Kyiv described as a key logistics facility in Nizhnekamsk. Russia’s Belgorod governor said two civilians were killed in separate Ukrainian drone attacks, while the Defence Ministry said air-defence systems intercepted another drone bound for Moscow. Video released by Kyiv also showed a Ukrainian MiG-29 shooting down a Russian drone with an R-73 missile. On the ground, Russia’s Defence Ministry announced the capture of the settlement of Yablonofka in the Donetsk region and said an Iskander missile strike in neighbouring Chernihiv region destroyed Ukrainian equipment and killed up to 20 soldiers. Kyiv had not commented on the territorial claim by late afternoon local time. Ukrainian officials said the overnight Russian barrage involved 47 explosive drones and two cruise missiles, underscoring both sides’ increasing reliance on unmanned systems as the war approaches its third winter.