Russia, Ukraine exchange overnight strikes that leave 7 dead, many injured

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine exchanged strikes overnight that killed civilians and injured many others on both sides, local authorities reported.

Large-scale Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities have become almost routine in recent weeks, with Moscow exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot systems — the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

In the latest attacks, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, according to the regional administration.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Eight more people were injured in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa after “dozens of missiles and drones” struck the city and surrounding region, according to local administration head Oleh Kiper.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for months lobbied other countries, especially the U.S., to send Ukraine more Patriot systems made scarcer by the Iran war, arguing they are crucial for defending civilians.

Failing that, Zelenskyy wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or get approval from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes against Russian energy infrastructure, as well as the country’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, and other targets deep inside Russia, sparking a fuel crisis.

Russia’s defense ministry on Sunday claimed its overnight strikes hit drone warehouses in the Kharkiv region, as well as fuel depots and stores of other materiel belonging to Ukraine’s armed forces at the port of Odesa.

It said its forces had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.

In Russia's Belgorod region, authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes damaged 29 apartment blocks and five private houses, as well as administrative buildings and unspecified “commercial facilities.”

Debris from Ukrainian drones also fell on two enterprises and a private home in the Russian city of Novorossiysk, mayor Andrey Kravchenko said on Sunday. He did not specify what the commercial sites were. Regional authorities later said falling debris had injured one person, damaged two private houses, and blew out a window in an apartment block.

A major fuel terminal is located at Novorossiysk that links Kazakhstan's oil fields to markets around the world, and which has previously been a target for Ukrainian strikes.

Rescuers evacuate an injured civilian after a residential building was hit following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Rescuers evacuate an injured civilian after a residential building was hit following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

Firefighters put out a fire after a residential building was hit following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire of residential buildings following a Russian missiles attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire of residential buildings following a Russian missiles attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire of residential buildings following a Russian missiles attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Lawyer Kamalpreet Chohan ran her finger down a list of 57 names of people scheduled to appear during a morning of hearings at the immigration court in California's capital and pointed out one glaring absence.

“None of these folks are represented,” she said.

Chohan is the coordinator of a program that sends volunteer lawyers to immigration courts to assist people without representation and help them navigate the complicated legal system where the stakes are a future in America or deportation.

Appearing without a lawyer opens up even greater risk under the second Trump administration, with the courts playing a key role in its mass deportation agenda. Courts are increasingly denying asylum, deportation officers have arrested immigrants in court hallways, the administration has packed courtrooms to cut backlogs and reduced lead time on hearings, prompting people to miss them.

Data shows that legal representation can be vital to winning in court but many immigrants, unable to pay for a private lawyer or find a pro bono one, navigate the system without an attorney at their side.

“Folks go into immigration court not knowing what’s happening. They come out not knowing what's happening. And when there’s an attorney present," Chohan said, “it’s just so helpful.”

Unlike criminal court, there is no guaranteed lawyer in immigration courts.

Immigrants have to hire one at a cost of thousands of dollars or hope to get represented by one of the nonprofit organizations assisting low-income immigrants. But waitlists with those organizations are long, and many parts of the country just do not have that many immigration attorneys.

Of the roughly 3.2 million pending deportation cases currently in U.S. immigration courts, people in 52% of those cases do not have a lawyer, according to an analysis of immigration court data by the Vera Institute of Justice, a think tank.

A Congressional Research Service study from 2024 found that only 19% of people who did not have a lawyer won asylum or another avenue to stay in the United States. Among those who did have a lawyer, 47% were successful.

“Having an attorney is just super critical to be able to navigate the system successfully,” said Adriel Orozco of the advocacy group American Immigration Council.

Chohan said she frequently runs into people who have been scammed by lawyers or people posing as lawyers who take their money but do nothing for their case.

“I will give him a list of attorneys who are free and we have vetted,” she told one man who said he was scammed. “They have long waitlists but he should still ask.”

Speaking later to The Associated Press, the man described how he left Guatemala after being threatened by gangs and came to the U.S. in 2024 seeking asylum. Ever since, he said he has done everything that has been asked of him while he tries to make ends meet, occasionally painting houses. He spent $4,500 on a lawyer who in the end did nothing to help him, he said.

“He turned out to be a scammer,” said the man, who did not want to be identified for fear of endangering his case. He is worried about what comes next in court after being warned by the judge that he could be deported. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.

Outside the Sacramento building where the court is housed is a long line of immigrants waiting for appointments with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is in the same building. Volunteers with a local anti-ICE resistance group stand ready to help.

Upstairs, two immigration judges are on the bench. One hears the in-depth individual cases of immigrants who are pursuing their claim of asylum.

The other judge has the master calendar docket, where dozens of immigrants will appear in brief hearings geared at making sure their case is ready to go to the next step.

Signs taped to the wall remind people not to videotape or record inside the court complex. A security guard makes sure no one loiters in the hallways. Most people clutch stacks of papers documenting their cases.

After immigrants file into the courtroom for their hearings, Judge Susan Phan introduces Chohan and describes the services her organization offers.

“You are not required to meet with her but it is a rare opportunity that we have someone volunteering their time,” Phan said before launching into the day's work.

Chohan, who works with the California Immigration Project, starts each hearing in the courtroom. She has a clipboard to take notes, extra copies of forms and a crate of books for restless children attending court with their parents. She spends the bulk of her time in the waiting room, talking to immigrants after their hearings and scanning their documents to flesh out what else they need.

Speaking to one young man from Mexico, she asks to see his asylum application, noting that the judge had pointed out that it was not that detailed.

“Sometimes judges can deny a claim if there isn’t enough detail,” she said through one of the organization's volunteer translators.

The organization frequently has clinics to help immigrants fill out their asylum application. Chohan said she will alert him to the next one.

Another woman holding a stack of documents is there with her son and wanted to make sure her children could come with her if she is deported. Chohan also briefed her on what to expect at her upcoming asylum hearing and said the organization will send her an asylum filing guide.

Chohan highlighted places on forms where people need to give answers or answer in more detail. It’s OK to write “none” but she advises them to not leave boxes blank.

Everything submitted in Spanish must be accompanied by a translation into English that must be done by a person, not an automatic online translator. Copies of every single page of a passport must be submitted. Documents must be sent in two weeks before the applicant’s hearing so the judge can review them.

Over and over, Chohan reminds immigrants to download their receipt showing they paid the $102 asylum application fee so they can submit it to the court.

Chohan said a lot of these procedures and forms are discussed in court but it is happening so fast and immigrants are listening through a translator that they do not always understand what is happening.

“A lot of times when they go into court, they’re just happy that they’re out of court and they’re not being arrested,” she said.

Chohan has witnessed the upheaval in the immigration courts during Republican President Donald Trump's second term.

She was in the court hallways last summer when ICE officers waited to arrest immigrants after their hearings. Earlier this summer she watched as the administration started holding “mega masters,” hearings with dozens of respondents at a time that are meant to clear a backlog but have created chaos.

Chohan said there are not enough pro bono lawyers in the Sacramento area to help everyone who needs one so the “Attorney of the Day” program is often the next best thing. She believes everyone should have access to a lawyer.

Until that day, she said, the program "helps bridge that gap.”

People arrive for immigration court hearings in New York, Monday, July 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)