(Zaporizhia) At least one person was killed and seven others injured following shelling on the city of Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine, local authorities said, blaming Russia.
Posted at 9:32
Zaporizhia, controlled by the Ukrainians, is located in the region of the same name, which Moscow has claimed for annexation, although it does not have full control of it.
It is about sixty kilometers northeast of the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, which the Russians have been occupying militarily since the beginning of March, and which Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of bombing for months.
In the city, Thursday’s strikes ripped open an entire section of a large apartment building, and rescuers were digging through the rubble by hand, looking for possible victims, AFP journalists said.
White smoke still escaped from an imposing pile of rubble sprayed by the water hoses of the firefighters.
“A woman died” and another “was saved” by doctors, said Ukrainian regional governor Oleksandre Staroukh on social networks. He had previously reported two people killed.
Seven people were injured, including a 3-year-old child, he added, indicating that the toll could still change.
According to the governor, seven strikes by Russian forces targeted “very tall buildings”. He then spoke in the middle of the morning of a “new attack”, but without giving more details.
“The Russians continue to deliberately hit civilians to sow fear,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba tweeted.
“Russian terror must be stopped: by force of arms, by sanctions and by complete isolation” of Moscow, he urged.
Last week, at least 30 people were killed in a strike on a column of civilian cars near the town of Zaporizhia, not far from a crossing point between the part of the region controlled by the Ukrainians and that occupied by the Russian army.
Russians and Ukrainians accused each other of this bombardment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday finalized the annexation of four Ukrainian territories (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia) but the Kremlin has not yet confirmed which geographical areas of these regions will be annexed.
He signed a decree during the day for Russia to formally appropriate the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, while the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi announced his departure for Kyiv to discuss the “more urgent than ever” need for the establishment of “a protection zone” around this plant.
Ukraine’s presidency also said on Thursday that in the past 24 hours, 14 people had been killed in attacks in the Donetsk region.