Russia and Ukraine have exchanged more overnight attacks causing casualties on both sides, say local officials.

Two people were killed and three others injured in a Russian attack on the Nikopol district of Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, said regional military administration head, Oleksandr Hanzha.

Four districts were hit more than 20 times with drones, artillery and aerial bombs, he added on Telegram.

In the Volgograd region of Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and injured eight, regional governor, Andrei ⁠⁠Bocharov, said on Telegram on Friday.

In Russia’s southern region of Rostov, a drone attack injured a woman in the town of Gukovo, regional governor Yuri Slyusar ⁠⁠said on Telegram.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian deep and mid-range strikes attacked Russian infrastructure, including three logistics centres in Sarapul, Kazan and Volgograd.

Ukrainian forces also targeted a maritime terminal in Russia’s Krasnodar region and an oil refinery in the Volgograd region, he said

“We continue to carry out our deep and mid-range strikes against Russian infrastructure facilities that prop up Russia’s aggression,” Zelenskyy said on X on Friday.

“Our strikes under the long-range sanctions plan are always about justified responses aimed at depriving the Russian war machine of its resources.”

“We are protecting our people and will continue to act as necessary to achieve peace,” he continued.

While Zelenskyy was defending Ukraine’s strikes abroad, he was also facing a different kind of pressure at home.

Thousands of protesters marched through central Kyiv on Friday, moving through the historic centre before filling Khreshchatyk, the capital’s main street. Their demand was the reinstatement of former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had only taken charge of the wartime ministry in January before being dismissed in a surprise and unexplained reshuffle in mid-July.

Fedorov is widely credited with driving military innovation, and the lack of a clear explanation for his removal has fuelled speculation – from a rift with the former commander-in-chief to unconfirmed claims linking his exit to corruption concerns in the defence sector.

Organisers say the protests will continue until Fedorov is restored to his post. So far, Zelenskyy has shown no sign of reversing course, and has already appointed Yevhenii Khmara, the acting head of the state security service, as acting defence minister.

Fuel attacks

Friday’s attacks were far from the first time Ukraine has targeted Russian oil refineries, with the objective of causing serious fuel shortages across the country. They have already compelled Moscow, a major hydrocarbon producer, to begin buying fuel abroad.

Ukraine has also disrupted Russian supply routes north of the Sea of Azov, causing acute fuel shortages and blackouts in the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Ukraine recently stepped up attacks on facilities belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, as it keeps up strikes on energy facilities that have triggered a supply crisis ⁠⁠across most of Russia.

Wildberries said after being hit on Thursday that it had paid a second tranche of financial support to nearly 100,000 sellers whose goods were damaged.

Russian forces struck a vessel carrying ⁠⁠military cargo ⁠⁠near the Ukrainian port of Odesa, the Russian Defence Ministry said ‌‌on Friday.

It added that ⁠⁠forces had pushed Ukrainian ‌‌forces out of the settlement of Stinki in the Donetsk ⁠⁠region and ⁠⁠out of Virivka in Ukraine’s ⁠⁠Kharkiv region entirely.

The Russian Union of Grain Exporters and Producers said the consequences of the war will affect many countries in the near future.

Ukrainian attacks on shipping in the Black Sea ⁠⁠were likely to lead to a complete blockage of grain export corridors ‌‌in the near future, causing prices to rise that will hit developing countries hardest, the union told Reuters on Friday.

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine, ⁠⁠also a major agricultural ⁠⁠exporter, have long been attacking each other’s agricultural export facilities and ⁠⁠shipping in the Black Sea ⁠⁠area.