Ukraine widens its targets — and its tolerance for civilian casualties

For most of Russia’s long-running war against Ukraine, Russian civilians were generally spared from Kyiv’s attacks. However, this is changing. Since July, Ukraine has broadened its long-range drone campaign to include conventional military targets, intensifying strikes on Russia’s oil and gas industry as well as warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s version of Amazon.

While these attacks are primarily aimed at causing economic damage and "bringing the war back home to Russia," they also signal a shift in Ukraine’s willingness to accept higher numbers of Russian civilian casualties as collateral damage.

According to the United Nations, Ukrainian attacks inside Russia killed 253 civilians in 2025, but in July alone, Russian authorities reported 79 civilian deaths and 601 injuries. Zelenskyy has defended Wildberries as a legitimate target, citing its use by the aggressor in supplying sanctioned components for drone and navigation equipment production.

Ukrainian lawmaker Maryana Bezuhla, a vocal critic of Zelenskyy, argues that Russia's logistics system is being used to wage war against Ukraine and that Russia has been targeting Ukrainian civilians throughout the conflict.

Despite the increased risk to civilians, there is no evidence that Ukraine is deliberately targeting them, even as Russia continues to bomb apartment buildings, hospitals, and schools with ballistic missiles and drones. Ukraine's expert at Chatham House, Jaroslava Barbieri, asserts that "no Ukrainian strikes have deliberately targeted civilian districts," while emphasizing that Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure and civilian areas with the intent to cause civilian casualties – an important distinction to draw.

Recently, a Russian drone attack on a crowded shopping mall in Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih left 16 people dead and over 130 wounded, including children. This incident followed a tactic known as "double-tapping," where a second attack is conducted a few minutes after the first to target first responders. The Ukrainian government has repeatedly denied intentionally targeting civilians, but the U.N. has documented at least 16,874 Ukrainian civilian deaths since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, with many unrecorded deaths near the front lines and in occupied territories.

The U.N. has also expressed concern over Ukraine's drone attacks, stating that any strikes against civilians and civilian infrastructure are a clear violation of international humanitarian law. Ukrainian officials, however, reject this argument, accusing Russia of targeting civilian areas and infrastructure throughout the war. European officials, alarmed by the shift in tactics, worry about the potential political consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin, while acknowledging that Ukraine's ability to counterattack has become a new reality in this "existential war."