This article was originally published in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). Read the original article. 

Ukraine struck targets in several parts of Russia early on July 24, including another warehouse of Russian e-commerce retailer Wildberries, as Kyiv continues to expand its retaliatory long-range strike campaign in an effort to force Moscow into negotiations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strike on a Wildberries facility in the St. Petersburg area, claiming it provided components used in the production of drones and other military equipment.

He added that Ukraine's so-called long-range sanctions -- a phrase Kyiv has been using to describe a wave of strikes it has launched deep into Russian territory -- also hit "one of the key military enterprises" in the Russian city of Kirov, which Zelenskyy said supplies components for aircraft and missile systems that "are used, in particular, in the massive attacks against our cities and communities."

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The Kirov attack left six dead and more than two dozen injured, according to Kirov regional Governor Aleksandr Sokolov.

Wildberries, which Ukraine claims sells dual-usage goods that the military uses in the war, has been the target of several attacks over the past week, with Ukrainian drones also targeting its facilities in the Moscow and Tambov regions. Those hits left eight workers dead.

Often referred to as Russia's equivalent of Amazon, Wildberries started as an online retailer of apparel from European catalogs. Since then, it has expanded into a marketplace featuring a wide range of products sold by third-party vendors.

The company says that during regular business operations, it processes some 20 million orders daily. Its co-founder, Tatyana Kim, is considered Russia's wealthiest woman with a net worth estimated at $7 billion by Forbes.

The developments come as Kyiv steps up its deep strikes on energy and military infrastructure inside Russia, attacking facilities more than 1,000 kilometers from its border.

Zelenskyy said the Kirov attack, which some Telegram monitoring channels said targeted the Avitec plant, a producer of anti-aircraft missiles, was almost 1,350 kilometers away. Avitec is currently under sanctions from the United States, Ukraine, and several other countries.

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A Ukrainian official, meanwhile, said a Russian bomb attack on the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk killed five people and wounded nine others.

"Early this morning, the Russians dropped two aerial bombs on the city... The Russians are attacking our cities every day," Donetsk regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said in a post on social media, urging locals to evacuate.

Separately, Romania said it scrambled fighter jets to shoot down a drone that entered its airspace on July 24. President Dan wrote on social media that the drone was shot down at about 11 am local time (0800 GMT) after it entered the country's airspace.

There were no injuries in the incident, which investigators are looking into to determine the origin of the drone.

The Ukrainian leader has said he hopes the "long-range sanctions" will bring Russia to the negotiating table, but the two countries appear to remain far apart in their terms for peace.

The Kremlin is sticking to its hard-line stance and offering no compromise on control of Ukraine's key eastern region of Donetsk, while continuing to launch daily air attacks across the country.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Manila on July 23 in a new push to find an end to Moscow's full-scale war on Ukraine, now in its fifth year, but both sides signaled no new breakthroughs or cause for optimism.

Following their meeting, which lasted just 35 minutes, Rubio described the talks as "good" and "frank" but said fresh proposals would be needed after previous peace ideas failed. He declined to disclose details.

In a statement, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Lavrov expressed Moscow's unhappiness with US weapons supplies to Ukraine, and he accused Ukraine's European allies of "destabilizing policies" that seek a "strategic defeat" for Russia.

Lavrov also raised the issue of the meeting between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, the ministry said.

Trump and Putin met for a face-to-face summit in Anchorage in August 2025. The Kremlin has insisted that during that meeting, Trump and Putin reached a key agreement on ending the Ukraine war. Rubio and other US officials have repeatedly denied that.

Copyright (c)2025 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty  

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