Glide Bombs Pound Zaporizhzhia: 1 Dead, Dozens Wounded; Kharkiv Warehouse of ~8 Million Books Destroyed

Russian aircraft, according to regional authorities, dropped eight Soviet-era glide bombs across residential districts of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia over roughly 90 minutes, killing one person and injuring dozens more, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Monday.

Attack Details

Fedorov said the strike killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl. The glide bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings across four districts of the city. These weapons are described by Ukrainian officials as retrofitted Soviet bombs with guidance kits that can carry very large explosive payloads and leave extensive damage; Ukrainian authorities say they currently lack effective countermeasures.

Separately, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 181 long-range strike drones overnight. Ukrainian air defences reportedly jammed or intercepted 163 of those drones, but 14 penetrated defences and caused damage at 13 locations, the service said. Neither side's claims could be independently verified.

Rescuers work at the damaged apartment building following a Russian air guided bomb strike in Zaporizhzhia, 21 July, 2026 - AP Photo

Other Reported Incidents

Regional officials in Russia's Krasnodar region said debris from a Ukrainian drone strike killed six people and wounded about 40 in the Black Sea town of Arkhipo-Osipovka. In Crimea — which Moscow declared annexed in September 2022 — the Russian-installed head of the peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, said an overnight attack killed three people and wounded two; he provided no further details.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces struck four bulk carriers carrying cargo for Ukrainian forces — three at sea in the Black Sea and one in the port of Mykolaiv — but it offered no additional information or independent confirmation.

Cultural Damage: Kharkiv Warehouse Fire

In northeastern Kharkiv, a weekend strike on a publishing warehouse owned by Ranok reportedly destroyed about 8 million books, the publisher said. Firefighters worked to extinguish blazes at the site after it was hit by drones. Ranok called the loss "the largest loss to Ukraine's book infrastructure since the beginning of the full-scale war" and described the attack as an assault on Ukrainian education and culture. The publisher also noted a recent warehouse strike near Kyiv that burned roughly 800,000 books.

Firefighters put out a fire at a major book warehouse following Russian drone strikes in Kharkiv, 1 August, 2026 - Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Context and International Response

Zaporizhzhia city remains under Ukrainian control, although Russian forces hold the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and parts of the wider region. The area is one of four regions Moscow declared annexed in 2022 — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — despite lacking full on-the-ground control.

"The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media, renewing an appeal for more US-made Patriot air-defence systems to protect against ballistic missiles.

Only Patriot systems are widely viewed by Kyiv as reliably capable of stopping ballistic missiles, and supplies are constrained. US and European deliberations over additional deliveries — and whether Ukraine should receive a license to produce Patriot systems domestically — remain politically sensitive. Zelenskyy also floated an idea for using commercial satellite services such as Starlink to help locate launch sites; officials have not publicly confirmed whether this is being pursued.

Note: All casualty and damage figures are based on official statements from Ukrainian and Russian regional authorities and the parties involved. Independent verification of many claims was not available at the time of reporting.