Bombay Durpun - At least 17 killed in Russian and Ukrainian long-range strikes

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian missile strike outside the Ukrainian capital killed six people, with a rescue operation ongoing and "dozens of people reported to be injured".

Zelensky also said that Russian aerial bombing killed five people in the frontline city of Sloviansk.

On the same day, Kyiv launched a wave of long-range drone and missile attacks on Russia.

Moscow said an attack on a factory more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the front in the city of Kirov killed six people.

Ukraine also attacked warehouses belonging to Russian online retail giant Wildberries outside Saint Petersburg -- targeting Russia's equivalent of Amazon for the third time this week.

The strikes come as the four-and-a-half-year war has seen more civilians dying this summer than in any period since the first months of Russia's invasion, according to the United Nations.

Zelensky said Kyiv struck a "key military enterprise" in Russia's Kirov, saying it "supplies components for the occupier's aircraft and missile systems, which are used in the massive attacks against ou cities."

Kirov Governor Alexander Sokolov confirmed Kyiv targeted a "factory" and that the six victims were killed on the spot. Another 26 were wounded.

While Kyiv has hit Russian towns as far as the Urals and Siberia, it has mostly damaged energy infrastructure, with deaths so far into Russia rare.

- 'Frightened' -

In Saint Petersburg -- Russian leader Vladimir Putin's hometown -- the attacks on Wildberries warehouses sent smoke pouring over the historic city.

Zelensky has accused Wildberries -- Russia's most popular online retailer -- of storing drone components and helping the Russian army.

He hailed Friday's strikes as "successful".

Ukraine has said its retaliatory strikes on Russia aim to weaken Moscow's war effort and to force the Kremlin to negotiate an end to the fighting.

The attacks on Russia's main cities were unthinkable when the Kremlin launched its offensive in 2022, believing in a quick victory and promising Russians life back home will not be affected.

In Saint Petersburg, 50-year-old teacher Anna said the strikes only "make people angry".

"This Ukrainian tactic is not leading to peace, even in my entourage, people are getting angrier and say that if that's their way, then we should continue (the offensive)," she said.

Ukrainian cities have been under constant Russian attacks since 2022, with civilians dying across Ukraine every day during the war.

None of that is visible in Russian media, with Moscow introducing massive censorship during the war and banning criticism of its military campaign.

Svetlana, a 30-year-old cashier in Saint Petersburg, said she was "frightened" and that "everything is getting worse".

She said Ukraine was to blame: "Of course I want peace, but you see what they (Ukrainians) are doing."

Russia occupies swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, with Moscow not dropping its maximalist demands to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine.

- Russian aerial bombs -

Hours after Ukraine's attack on Saint Petersburg, AFP reporters in Kyiv heard blasts over the city, after authorities warned of incoming Russian missiles -- a rare attempted daytime strike on the Ukrainian capital.

Russia has in recent weeks launched several waves of deadly ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv.

The city, which had a pre-war population of some 105,000, lies close to the frontline and is in Moscow's sights.

Sloviansk became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance in 2014, when it briefly fell to pro-Russia separatists before Kyiv retook control of the city.

The UN said this week that civilian casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war rose 37 percent in the first half of this year -- "almost double" what was documented in 2024.

D.Jayaraman--BD