Russia kills 22 civilians in Ukraine as the Kremlin remains defiant over
Trump threats
[July 29, 2025]
By HANNA ARHIROVA and ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian glide bombs and ballistic missiles struck a
Ukrainian prison and a medical facility overnight as Russia's relentless
strikes on civilian areas killed at least 22 people across the country,
officials said Tuesday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to
soon punish Russia with sanctions and tariffs unless it stops.
Four powerful Russian glide bombs hit a prison in Ukraine’s southeastern
Zaporizhzhia region, authorities said. They killed at least 17 inmates
and wounded more than 80 others, officials said.
In the Dnipro region of central Ukraine, authorities said Russian
missiles partially destroyed a three-story building and damaged nearby
medical facilities, including a maternity hospital and a city hospital
ward. Officials said at least four people were killed, including a
23-year-old pregnant woman, and eight were injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that across the country, 22
people were killed in Russian strikes on 73 cities, towns and villages.
“These were conscious, deliberate strikes — not accidental,” Zelenskyy
said on Telegram.
Trump said Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12
days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war, moving up
a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago. The
move meant Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by Aug. 7-9.
Trump has repeatedly rebuked Putin for talking about ending the war but
continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. But the Kremlin hasn't
changed its tactics.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Trump said during a visit to
Scotland.
Zelenskyy welcomed Trump's move on the timeline. “Everyone needs peace —
Ukraine, Europe, the United States and responsible leaders across the
globe,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on Telegram. “Everyone except Russia.”
The Kremlin pushes back against Trump
The Kremlin pushed back, with a top Putin lieutenant warning Trump
against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia.”
“Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran,” former president Dmitry Medvedev,
who is deputy head of the country’s Security Council, wrote on social
platform X.
“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between
Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Medvedev said.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Kremlin has
warned Kyiv's Western backers that their involvement could end up
broadening the war to NATO countries.
“Kremlin officials continue to frame Russia as in direct geopolitical
confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for
the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against NATO,” the
Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late
Monday.
Russia attacks with glide bombs, drones and missiles
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic
missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine
overnight. It said 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralized by
Ukrainian air defenses.
The Russian attack close to midnight Monday hit the Bilenkivska
Correctional Facility with glide bombs, according to the State Criminal
Executive Service of Ukraine.
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This photo provided by Ukraine's State Criminal Executive Service
shows a damaged prison in the village of Bilenke, in Ukraine's
Zaporizhzhia region, following a Russian bomb attack that killed at
least 17 inmates, on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Ukraine's State
Criminal Executive Service via AP)
Glide bombs, which are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with retractable
fins and guidance systems, have been laying waste to cities in
eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army is trying to pierce
Ukrainian defenses. The bombs carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600
pounds) of explosives.
At least 42 inmates were hospitalized with serious injuries, while
another 40 people, including one staff member, sustained various
injuries.
The strike destroyed the prison’s dining hall, damaged
administrative and quarantine buildings, but the perimeter fence
held and no escapes were reported, authorities said.
Ukrainian officials condemned the attack, saying that targeting
civilian infrastructure, such as prisons, is a war crime under
international conventions.
The assault occurred exactly three years after an explosion killed
more than 50 people at the Olenivka detention facility in the
Russia-occupied Donetsk region, where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners
were killed.
Russia and Ukraine accused each other of shelling the prison. The
Associated Press interviewed over a dozen people with direct
knowledge of details of that attack, including survivors,
investigators and families of the dead and missing. All described
evidence they believed points directly to Russia as the culprit. The
AP also obtained an internal United Nations analysis that found the
same.
Further Russian attacks hit communities in Synelnykivskyi district
with FPV drones and aerial bombs, killing at least one person and
injuring two others, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said.
Russian forces also targeted the community of Velykomykhailivska,
killing a 75-year-old woman and injuring a 68-year-old man,
according to Lysak.
Ukraine launches long-range drones
Ukraine has sought to fight back against Russian strikes by
developing its own long-range drone technology, hitting oil depots,
weapons plants and disrupting commercial flights.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that air defenses downed 74
Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, including 43 over
the Bryansk region.
Yuri Slyusar, the head of the Rostov region said a man in the city
of Salsk was killed in a drone attack, which started a fire at the
Salsk railway station.
Officials said a cargo train was set ablaze at the Salsk station and
the railway traffic via Salsk was suspended. Explosions shattered
windows in two cars of a passenger train and passengers were
evacuated.
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