Russia and Ukraine Hit Each Other With Drone Strikes Overnight — While Quietly Talking Peace
Russia and Ukraine launched deadly drone attacks against each other overnight on August 11–12, 2026, killing three people in total. Two died in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, and a child died in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk. Ukrainian drones also struck deep inside Russian territory, and Russian drones hit several Ukrainian cities. Al Jazeera
In Novorossiysk, a Ukrainian drone killed a child and injured another child and a woman, according to mayor Andrei Kravchenko, who wrote on Telegram: "Novorossiysk endured a horrific night." The strikes damaged four businesses and over two dozen residential buildings. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said eight people were injured across the broader Krasnodar region. Reuters via Facebook
The Novorossiysk grain terminal was among the sites hit, its owner Demetra Holding confirmed. Ukrainian drones struck the city in waves overnight and also damaged homes in Crimea, the peninsula Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, according to local governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. Russia's Ministry of Defence said it shot down and destroyed a total of 502 Ukrainian drones overnight. Al Jazeera
On the Ukrainian side, a Russian drone attack on Kherson killed two people and injured at least two others, including an elderly woman, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the region's military administrator. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 22 drones overnight, without specifying how many targeted individual cities. A separate Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia started a fire at a shopping mall and cut power to about 1,200 customers, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov. Russian drones also damaged infrastructure in Odesa, Ukraine's largest seaport, according to city official Serhiy Lysak. Russia's Defence Ministry claimed it struck a fuel depot in Odesa that it said was used to supply the Ukrainian army. Al Jazeera
The Novorossiysk strike matters because the port is a major hub for Russia's grain and energy exports. An earlier drone attack on August 4, 2026, hit a cargo ship near the port, seriously injuring three crew members. Reuters According to Ukrainian officials cited by the Financial Times, Ukraine had agreed to stop drone strikes on oil tankers using Novorossiysk after a request from US Vice President JD Vance at the end of July 2026. The August 11–12 attack on the port's grain terminal and businesses suggests that agreement applied only to oil tankers, not to the port as a whole.
The overnight exchange also follows a pattern of both sides striking farther from the front lines. A Ukrainian drone attack on Nizhnekamsk, in Russia's Tatarstan region about 1,300 km from the fighting, killed at least 12 people and wounded 39 others, according to reporting from August 10–11. NPR That strike followed a July 17, 2026, Russian attack on two Ukrainian Black Sea port cities that killed three people. Reuters
Amid these escalating strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on August 12, 2026, that Ukraine had handed proposals to US negotiators for a plan to end the war with Russia. Al Jazeera He did not share what was in the proposals, and Russia did not immediately respond.
The broader context here is that this war is being fought on two tracks at the same time. On one track, both sides are launching more drones over greater distances. On the other, there is a quiet diplomatic channel to Washington, shown by the Vance request on tanker strikes. The 502 drones Russia says it intercepted overnight, if that number is accurate, would be one of the largest single-night Ukrainian drone barrages of the entire conflict.
It is still unclear whether the US request to spare oil tankers was a one-off gesture or part of a larger deal now being formalized in the proposals Zelenskyy mentioned. Ukraine's decision to strike the grain terminal rather than oil infrastructure could fit either explanation: it may be consistent with the narrow agreement on tankers, or it could be a signal that Ukraine can still escalate even while talking peace. Without seeing the actual proposals, that reading is speculative.
What is clear is that on the very day Ukraine signaled a diplomatic opening, the pace and reach of strikes continued to grow.
