The Russian-Ukrainian war is witnessing a new wave of escalation, today (Friday), with the two sides exchanging deadly attacks targeting cities and installations inside each other's territories, resulting in deaths and injuries on both sides.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the killing of 6 people and the wounding of dozens in a Russian missile attack near Kyiv. The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv reported that air defense systems are working to repel a Russian attack. The Ukrainian Air Force warned of missiles heading towards the capital.

A Russian shelling on the city of Sloviansk near the front lines resulted in the killing of five people and the injury of nine others. Ukrainian authorities announced the killing of five people and the injury of nine others following two Russian airstrikes that targeted the city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, near the front lines in the east of the country. The governor of the region, Vadym Filashkin, said that Russian forces dropped two aerial bombs on the city (Friday), causing extensive damage to ten private homes, a commercial facility, and the premises of the honorary consulate of the Republic of Latvia. Filashkin called on the city's residents to evacuate it amid the continued security risks and repeated Russian shelling on the region.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities announced the killing of six people and the injury of 26 others in a Ukrainian attack targeting a facility in Kirov Oblast in central Russia. The governor of the region, Alexander Sokolov, said the attack resulted in 32 casualties, including six dead who died at the scene, while the injured received treatment in hospitals.

The governor of Leningrad Oblast, Alexander Drozdenko, confirmed that a warehouse belonging to the Russian online retailer Wildberries in the region near Saint Petersburg caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack.

He added that three were injured. Wildberries said that work at two of its logistics sites in the region has stopped. The company evacuated its warehouse in Crimea of workers, confirming that the latest attack did not result in any injuries to its employees. Eight were killed in the July 18 attacks on logistics centers in the cities of Kotovsk and Elektrostal.

Five warehouses of the same company, constituting about ten percent of its logistics capacity, have been attacked since July 18. Ukraine considers the company part of the infrastructure that supports the Russian army, while Russia denied that Wildberries deals in any military supplies.