Ukraine: Russian bombardment kills 17 as they sleep in apartment building

At least 17 people were killed as they slept as Russian forces bombarded civilian targets in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

The barrage in the city, in a region Moscow has claimed as its own, blasted 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.

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The bridge, which carries road and rail traffic, is one of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s ‘pride projects’, constructed after he annexed the Peninsual.

Volunteers work to clean the debris on a site where several houses were destroyed after a Russian attack at a residential area in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine
(Photo: Leo Correa)Volunteers work to clean the debris on a site where several houses were destroyed after a Russian attack at a residential area in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine
(Photo: Leo Correa)
Volunteers work to clean the debris on a site where several houses were destroyed after a Russian attack at a residential area in Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine (Photo: Leo Correa)

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 injuries, Mr Kurtev posted on his Telegram channel.

The Ukrainian military also confirmed the attack, saying there were dozens of casualties.

Russia has repeatedly struck the city is in the Ukrainian controlled-part of a region President 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.

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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.

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 the bridge.

Mr Putin signed a decree late on Saturday tightening security and for energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia, and put Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, in charge of the effort.

Some Russian legislators called for Mr Putin to declare a “counter-terrorism operation”, rather than the term “special military operation” that has downplayed the scope of fighting to ordinary Russians.

Hours after the explosion, Russia’s Defence Ministry announced that the air force chief, General Sergei Surovikin, would now command all Russian troops in Ukraine.

Gen Surovikin, led Russian forces in Syria and was accused of overseeing a bombardment that destroyed much of Aleppo.

The 12-mile Kerch Bridge, on a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, is a symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea and an essential link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The 3.6 billion dollar bridge, the longest in Europe, is vital to sustaining Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine.

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Mr Putin himself presided over the bridge’s opening in May 2018.

Mr Zelensky, in a video address, said Ukraine wants a future “without occupiers. Throughout our territory, in particular in Crimea”.

He also acknowledged “very, very difficult, very tough fighting” around the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have claimed recent gains.