The war reaches Russian territory. It is inevitable and absolutely just.
Na manhã de 31 de julho, dois mísseis russos caíram sobre Kryvyi Rig, cidade natal do presidente Zelensky, matando cinco pessoas — entre elas uma criança de dez anos — e ferindo outras 64. O ataque, que destruiu um edifício residencial e um centro educacional, insere-se numa escalada mútua de violência em que drones ucranianos alcançam território russo enquanto mísseis russos continuam a ceifar vidas civis. A guerra, como tantas antes dela, avança palmo a palmo sobre os corpos dos que menos a escolheram.
- Dois mísseis atingiram Kryvyi Rig em plena manhã, destruindo um prédio residencial em múltiplos andares e apagando completamente um centro educacional — a cidade natal de Zelensky transformada, mais uma vez, em campo de ruínas.
- Entre os cinco mortos está uma menina de dez anos; 64 feridos foram contabilizados, e autoridades alertam que pode haver vítimas ainda soterradas sob os escombros.
- Moscou justifica a intensificação dos ataques como resposta aos drones ucranianos que atingiram a Crimeia e o próprio território russo, incluindo Moscou — uma escalada que ambos os lados narram como legítima e inevitável.
- Zelensky celebra os ataques a solo russo como sinal de que a guerra 'chega ao seu centro simbólico', enquanto a Rússia classifica os drones como 'ato desesperado' e insiste que a contraofensiva ucraniana está fracassando.
- A Ucrânia reporta avanços territoriais de 12,6 km² nas últimas semanas, mas o progresso é lento contra linhas defensivas russas entrincheiradas, e Zelensky já alerta para ataques à infraestrutura energética no inverno que se aproxima.
Na manhã de 31 de julho, dois mísseis russos atingiram Kryvyi Rig, cidade no centro da Ucrânia. Um destruiu um edifício residencial em vários andares; o outro apagou completamente um centro educacional. Cinco pessoas morreram — entre elas uma menina de dez anos — e pelo menos 64 ficaram feridas. As autoridades alertaram que poderia haver vítimas ainda sob os escombros.
O administrador militar da cidade confirmou o balanço. Zelensky, que nasceu em Kryvyi Rig, publicou imagens da destruição e chamou o ataque de terrorismo. Não era a primeira vez: em meados de junho, bombardeios russos já haviam matado ao menos doze pessoas na mesma cidade.
Moscou afirmou que intensificou os ataques em resposta a uma onda de drones ucranianos sobre território russo, incluindo a própria capital, onde um drone causara danos menores no dia anterior. Zelensky celebrou o episódio, declarando que a guerra chegava ao solo russo. Em Kherson, um homem de 65 anos morreu quando munições russas atingiram seu carro — o custo humano da escalada crescia em ambos os lados.
As narrativas sobre o rumo da guerra divergiam radicalmente. A Rússia insistia que a contraofensiva ucraniana estava fracassando e que as armas ocidentais apenas prolongavam o conflito. A vice-ministra da Defesa ucraniana, Ganna Maliar, rejeitou essa leitura, afirmando que as forças ucranianas haviam recuperado 12,6 km² nas últimas semanas, totalizando mais de 204 km² desde o início da operação em junho.
Os avanços chegavam devagar, contra linhas defensivas russas profundamente entrincheiradas. Zelensky já olhava para o inverno, advertindo que a Ucrânia precisava se preparar para novos ataques à infraestrutura energética. A guerra parecia se consolidar como uma disputa de atrito — territorial, centímetro a centímetro — com civis em cidades como Kryvyi Rig pagando o preço mais imediato.
On Monday morning, July 31st, two Russian missiles descended on Kryvyi Rig, a city in central Ukraine. One struck a residential building; the other hit an educational center. When the dust settled, five people were dead—among them a ten-year-old girl—and at least sixty-four others lay wounded. The residential building bore the scars across multiple floors, its facade blackened by fire. The educational center was obliterated entirely.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the city's military administrator, confirmed the toll. President Volodimir Zelensky, who was born in Kryvyi Rig, posted images of the destruction on Facebook and called it terrorism. "They bombed residential buildings, a university building, a road intersection," he wrote. "Unfortunately there are dead and wounded. There may be people under the rubble." This was not the city's first catastrophe. In mid-June, Russian bombardment had killed at least twelve people in a four-story residential building and a warehouse in the same city.
The strike came as Russia intensified its campaign against Ukrainian targets, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Moscow claimed it was responding to a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory—including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and Moscow itself, where a drone strike the day before had caused minor damage to two buildings in a commercial district. Zelensky had celebrated that attack, declaring that war was arriving on Russian soil. "Progressively, the war reaches Russian territory, one of its symbolic centers and military bases," he said. "It is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely just process."
Further south, in Kherson, a sixty-five-year-old man was killed when Russian munitions struck his car. The human cost of the escalation was mounting on both sides.
Yet the two sides offered starkly different accounts of the war's trajectory. Russia's defense ministry insisted that Ukraine's counteroffensive, launched in early June after months of preparation, was failing and that Western weapons were not delivering victory but only prolonging the conflict. The Kremlin dismissed the drone attacks on Moscow as a "desperate act." Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Ganna Maliar, rejected this narrative. She characterized the southern offensive as successful, claiming Ukrainian forces had recovered 12.6 square kilometers of occupied territory in recent weeks, bringing the total liberated since the operation began to 204.7 square kilometers. In the Bakhmut region to the east, where some of the fiercest fighting persists, she said Ukrainian troops had reclaimed two square kilometers in the previous week alone, totaling thirty-seven square kilometers in that sector since early June.
The advances came slowly, against entrenched Russian defensive lines. Zelensky, meanwhile, was already looking ahead to winter, warning that Ukraine must prepare for Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in the coming months. The war, it seemed, was settling into a grinding contest of attrition and territorial inch-by-inch gains, with civilians in cities like Kryvyi Rig bearing the immediate cost.
Citações Notáveis
They bombed residential buildings, a university building, a road intersection. Unfortunately there are dead and wounded. There may be people under the rubble.— President Volodimir Zelensky, on the Kryvyi Rig attack
Progressively, the war reaches Russian territory, one of its symbolic centers and military bases. It is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely just process.— President Volodimir Zelensky, on Ukrainian drone strikes in Russia
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does Zelensky keep emphasizing that the war is reaching Russian territory? Doesn't that risk escalation?
He's trying to reframe the narrative. For months, Ukraine has been on the defensive, absorbing strikes. Now he's saying Ukraine is taking the fight back—that this is justice, not aggression. It's partly morale, partly a message to his own people that they're not just victims.
But Russia says the counteroffensive is failing. Who's actually winning ground?
The numbers suggest Ukraine is advancing, but glacially. Two hundred kilometers sounds like a lot until you realize the front is over a thousand kilometers long. They're measuring success in square kilometers now, not cities. That's the arithmetic of attrition.
A ten-year-old died in Kryvyi Rig. Why does that detail matter more than the others?
Because it's concrete. It's not "civilian casualties"—it's a child. It anchors the abstraction of war to something real. Zelensky was born there. He knows those streets. That's why he keeps mentioning it.
What happens when winter comes?
Zelensky is already worried. If Russia targets power plants and heating infrastructure, cities freeze. Ukraine will be fighting a two-front war—against Russian forces and against cold. That's when the real pressure builds.