Ukraine: Russian strikes kill 17 following bridge attack
Zaporihzia, Ukraine – A Russian missile barrage that crumbled apartment buildings and houses in Ukraine’s city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens, Ukrainian officials said Sunday as Moscow strained to enforce its takeover of illegally annexed territory.
The blasts that collapsed at least one high-rise residential building and blew out the windows of others came from six missiles launched in Russian-occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian air force said. The region is one of four Russia claimed as its own this month, but the regional capital remains under Ukrainian control.
The multiple strikes came after an explosion Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia. The Kerch Bridge attack damaged an important supply route for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in Ukraine and a towering symbol of Russia’s power in the region.
Stunned residents watched from behind police tape as emergency crews tried to reach the upper floors of a building that took a direct hit. The attack collapsed several floors, leaving a smoldering chasm at least 40-feet wide where apartments had stood. Several hours later, the top floors caved in as well.
In an adjacent apartment building, the barrage blew windows and doors out of their frames in a radius of hundreds of feet. At least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings in all were damaged, and at least 40 people were hospitalized, city council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said.
Zaporizhzhia resident Mucola Markovich, 76, said he and his wife hid under a blanket when they heard incoming rockets and booms from blasts. “There was one explosion, then another one,” he said. Then, in a flash, their fourth-floor apartment was gone, Markovich said, holding back tears.
“When it will be rebuilt, I don’t know,” he said. “I am left without an apartment at the end of my life.”
Russian officials did not immediately comment on the strikes. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Zaporizhzhia region last week, Russia has repeatedly bombarded the city of the same name. At least 19 people died in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings in the city on Thursday.
“Again, Zaporizhzhia. Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post.
“Absolute meanness. Absolute evil. … From the one who gave this order, to everyone who carried out this order: they will answer. They must. Before the law and the people,” he added.
Tetyana Lazunko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took shelter in the hallway of their top floor apartment after first hearing air raid sirens and then an explosion that shook the building and sent their possessions flying.