A combat drone exploded near a village on Moldova's border with Ukraine on 9 August, sparking a grass fire but hurting no one, Moldovan police said. Investigators recovered fragments and will examine them to establish the drone's type and origin. It was one of two blasts the war pushed across Europe's borders in two days, with Bulgaria fielding a separate drone explosion and summoning Ukraine's ambassador.

A drone down in a Moldovan field

The blast rang out around 13:20 near Crocmaz, in Moldova's Ștefan Vodă district in the southeast, and set dry grass alight, NewsMaker reported. The village lies on the Dniester, upstream of Ukraine's Dniester estuary.

Firefighters and patrols confirmed no civilians were hurt and no homes were damaged. Police found fragments that they preliminarily identified as parts of a combat drone. Those pieces will undergo a ballistic-technical examination to determine the drone's exact type, its affiliation, and how it fell. Crocmaz sits right on the Ukrainian border. The district council posted photos of the object and told residents to avoid the cordoned area and report any fragments to the 112 line.

The blast came amid an assault on Odesa

The drone fell hours after Russia hit Odesa with missiles and drones overnight on 9 August. Much of Moldova's eastern border runs along Odesa Oblast, so wreckage from the war often drifts across. Russian drones have crashed on Moldovan soil during such attacks before. Whether this one was Russian or something else is for the examination to show.

A parallel case in Bulgaria

Also today, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine's ambassador, Olesia Ilashchuk, over a drone that exploded on 8 August near the Romanian border, by a Trans-Balkan gas pipeline compressor station, Bulgarian National Television reported. Its defense bloc said the drone was likely a Ukrainian decoy, with no sign it was launched on purpose. 

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Russia’s drones violated the airspace of Moldova and Romania — one fell straight onto a civilian roof (MAP)

On 1 August, 20-year-old fourth-year psychology student Vitalina Yarovenko was killed in a double-tap strike while helping victims in Kyiv. She was a volunteer paramedic with the Hospitallers medical volunteer battalion. After completing her training, she was preparing to officially join the battalion, said Nataliia Chykhachova, head of the Hospitallers' patronage service. Kyiv bid farewell to the volunteer on 4 August.

Every day, Russia fires drones and missiles, targeting Ukrainian cities. Overnight into 1 August, Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles, killing nine people and injuring more than 30 others, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Vitalina and a group of volunteer paramedics were on their way to rescue people after a strike on Zdolbunivska Street in Kyiv's Darnytskyi district. The second strike took Vitalina's life as they were getting out of their vehicle, said Oleksandr Kostiuk, head of military training at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The Russian troops often employ the double-tap tactic, targeting the first responders.

Vitalina was killed alongside 25-year-old paramedic Yeva Roiter, while their driver remains in critical condition.

Farewell ceremony

Several hundred people gathered in central Kyiv. Most of them were dressed in white and held white flowers at the request of Vitalina's mother. Some knew the young woman personally, while others had never met her but decided to come. The farewell ceremony began at St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral and continued at Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). Vitalina was buried near the Alley of Heroes at Berkovetske Cemetery.

"I begged, I did not want a hero at home, I wanted my child at home. But it was her choice. Vitalina had always been a very brave girl. At the age of 20, I wrote that I once held her in my arms, and now she firmly holds the world. I wanted her to keep holding this world for a very long time. But, perhaps, now she will hold it from heaven," Vitalina's mother, Natalia Koretska-Yarovenko, shared during the farewell ceremony.

Vitalina Yarovenko

During the farewell ceremony, people recalled that during her school years, Vitalina led an active life. She took part in environmental initiatives, practiced athletics, and competed in sports competitions. In the eighth grade, she decided that she would become a psychologist. Vitalina fulfilled that dream, and while studying at university, she returned to her former school to hold workshops for children.

After the full-scale invasion, Vitalina tried to help the military. She visited soldiers in hospitals and launched more than 30 fundraising campaigns. She also conducted military training courses at her university and joined the Hospitallers, helping people at the sites of Russian strikes in Kyiv as part of the battalion.

"She truly was a friend of the Hospitallers and had our shoulder patch, which not everyone has. She was going to complete the training and officially join our ranks. But she did not manage to," Chykhachova said.

As an act of revenge, soldiers on the front line have been writing "For Vitalina" on their UAVs. One such photograph was shared in the comments under a post by freelance presidential adviser Serhii Flesh by the Lava Unmanned Systems Regiment of the Khartiia 2nd Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine.

Deliberately striking medics as they reach the wounded — the "double-tap" — is widely assessed as a likely war crime under the Geneva Conventions, which protect medical personnel, including volunteer paramedics.

Polish prosecutors have identified the cruise missile that crashed in eastern Poland during Russia's mass overnight attack on Ukraine yesterday, according to Ukrinform. Investigators traced the weapon to a recent Russian production run and dated its manufacture, with a Ukrainian expert helping confirm the find. 

Prosecutors trace the missile to a Moscow-area plant

Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Lublin, spoke at a media briefing on Friday, a Ukrinform correspondent reported on 31 July. He said the fallen weapon was a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. Investigators reached that conclusion after examining the impact site in Lublin Voivodeship and the fragments recovered there. The same work let them date the weapon's manufacture and trace where in Russia it was built.

"Preliminary work examining the site and the traces found — that is, elements of the aerial object — allows us to state unequivocally what object we are dealing with," Kozak said. "This is a Kh-101 missile, manufactured in the second quarter of 2026 at one of the enterprises in Moscow Oblast."

That places the weapon's origin at a plant in the Moscow area, the region ringing the Russian capital. A Ukrainian expert arrived in Poland yesterday evening and joined the identification.

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Warsaw confirms a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile overshot Ukraine and hit a field in Poland

How the missile crossed into Poland

Yesterday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that a Kh-101 had crossed into Polish airspace during the overnight barrage. It came down about 50 kilometers from Lublin, leaving behind a crater where its warhead exploded. Poland put its air defenses on alert and scrambled military aircraft as Russia's missiles neared the border. Air raid sirens sounded in Lublin around 03:50 local time, and crews later found the crater and scattered debris around 95 km into Poland.

The Russian missile either strayed into Poland or was deliberately directed there during Russia's mass attack on Ukraine overnight on 30 July. Russia sent missiles and drones across the country, and several areas reported hits and fires. Its strikes hit Lviv, Kyiv, and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, where the barrage also killed civilians in central Ukraine.

After the missile fell, two disinformation campaigns spread through Poland's information space, one aimed at Ukraine and the other at the Polish government.

Tusk also signaled that Warsaw would soon weigh sending Ukraine more missiles for its Patriot air defense systems.