12 dead in Russian blast
A RUSSIAN barrage has pounded apartment buildings and other targets in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The blasts in the city, which sits in a region Moscow has claimed as its own, blew out windows in adjacent buildings and left at least one high-rise apartment building partially collapsed.
The multiple strikes came after an explosion on Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia, damaging an important supply artery for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine and hitting a towering symbol of Russian power in the region.
City council secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said rockets struck Zaporizhzhia overnight, and that at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings were damaged.
At least 40 people were admitted to hospital and dozens more were being treated for moderate to light injuries, Mr Kurtev posted on his Telegram channel.
The Ukrainian military also confirmed the attack, saying there were dozens of casualties.
In recent weeks, Russia has repeatedly struck the southern city, which is in the Ukrainian controlled-part of a region that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed in violation of international law last week.
At least 19 people also died in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings in Zaporizhzhia on Thursday.
“Again, Zaporizhzhia. Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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.
Residents of a building damaged overnight gathered behind police tape watching the smouldering remains of several floors that collapsed from the blast, leaving a chasm at least 40ft wide where apartments once stood.
Rescue workers tried to reach the upper floors.
While Russia targeted Zaporizhzhia before Saturday’s explosion on the Crimea bridge, the attack was a significant blow to Russia, which annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. No-one has claimed responsibility for damaging it.
Mr Putin signed a decree late on Saturday tightening security for the bridge and energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia, and put Russia’s federal security service in charge of the effort.
Some Russian legislators called for Mr Putin to declare a “counterterrorism operation”, rather than the term “special military operation” that has downplayed the scope of fighting to ordinary Russians.