Russia and Ukraine Trade Strikes, Casualties on Both Sides
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- Russia struck the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk with drones, artillery and aerial bombs, killing two and injuring three, with regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha reporting four districts hit more than 20 times overnight.
- Ukraine launched drone strikes on Russia's Volgograd and Rostov regions, killing one and injuring eight in Volgograd and wounding a woman in the town of Gukovo, according to regional governors Andrei Bocharov and Yuri Slyusar.
- Zelenskyy said Ukrainian deep and mid-range strikes hit three logistics centres in Sarapul, Kazan and Volgograd, a maritime terminal in Krasnodar region and an oil refinery in Volgograd as part of a 'long-range sanctions plan.'
- Ukraine's ongoing refinery campaign has already forced Moscow, normally a major hydrocarbon exporter, to begin buying fuel abroad and caused acute shortages and blackouts in occupied Crimea.
- Ukraine recently escalated attacks on Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, which said it had paid a second tranche of support to nearly 100,000 sellers whose goods were damaged in Thursday's strike.
- Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces struck a vessel carrying military cargo near the port of Odesa and pushed Ukrainian troops out of Stinki in Donetsk and Virivka in Kharkiv.
- Russia's Union of Grain Exporters and Producers warned that Ukrainian Black Sea attacks risk a complete blockage of grain export corridors, a move it said would push prices higher and hit developing countries hardest.
Why it matters: The exchange shows the conflict widening on two fronts: Ukraine is degrading Russian energy and logistics capacity enough to force fuel imports, while Moscow is grinding back ground in Donetsk and Kharkiv and striking Black Sea shipping that the Russian grain industry says will squeeze food prices in developing countries.
