By ILLIA NOVIKOV

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles hit a Ukrainian army training ground, killing three soldiers and wounding 18 others, authorities said, targeting Ukraine’s efforts to make up a severe manpower shortage in the nearly 3½-year war.

The Russian Defense Ministry asserted that the strike killed or wounded about 200 Ukrainian troops. The ministry said Ukraine’s 169th training center near Honcharivske in the Chernihiv region was hit with two Iskander missiles, one armed with multiple submunitions and another with high explosives.

Meanwhile, Russia continued its stepped-up aerial campaign against Ukrainian civilian targets, launching 78 attack drones overnight, including up to eight newly developed jet-powered drones, Ukraine’s air force said. At least five people were wounded.

More civilians are being killed

The U.N. mission in Ukraine notes a worsening trend in civilian casualties from Russian attacks this year, with 6,754 civilians killed or injured in the first half of 2025 — a 54% increase from the same period in 2024.

Since Russia launched an all-out invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, at least 13,580 Ukrainian civilians, including 716 children, have been killed, according to the U.N.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — until Aug. 8 — for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs. Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in U.S.-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.

Attacks on Ukrainian military facilities

Ukrainian forces are mostly hanging on against a grinding summer push by Russia’s bigger army, though the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed recent small advances along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

Ukrainian ground forces acknowledged the Russian strike on a military training ground in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, but its casualty report differed widely from Moscow’s.

A Russian Defense Ministry video showed multiple small explosions apparently caused by a missile with a shrapnel warhead, followed by one big blast, apparently from the other one armed with a high-explosive warhead.

A similar Russian strike occurred last September, when two ballistic missiles blasted a Ukrainian military academy and nearby hospital, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others.

Ukrainian authorities said a commission led by the head of the Military Law Enforcement Service has been formed to determine whether negligence or misconduct by officials contributed to the casualties in Chernihiv.

The attack was the fourth deadly strike in five months on Ukrainian military facilities. The previous three killed at least 46 soldiers and wounded more than 160, according to official reports.

Russia also has been trying disrupt Ukrainian military recruitment by hitting regional buildings coordinating the call-up.

On Wednesday, Russian forces targeted a regional military administration building in the northern Sumy region, injuring a 75-year-old woman, the administration said. It said they struck the same building with drones last Friday and Saturday.

Ukraine badly needs more troops

Though Ukraine has more than 1 million people in uniform, including the National Guard and other units, it badly needs more.

There have been questions about how Kyiv is managing the war, from a flawed mobilization drive to the overstretching and hollowing-out of front-line units through soldiers going AWOL.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bill Tuesday that allows Ukrainian men over the age of 60 to voluntarily sign contracts with the armed forces. The law allows those who want to contribute their experience and skills, particularly in noncombat or specialized roles.

In February, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry began offering new financial and other benefits that it hopes will attract men between the ages of 18 and 24 to military service. Men in that age group are exempt from the country’s draft, which covers men between 25 and 60 years old.

Ukraine has lowered its conscription age from 27 to 25, but that has failed to replenish ranks or replace battlefield losses.