A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 people, Ukrainian officials said, one of the deadliest single air attacks for weeks in the three-year war.
Moscow has ramped up its strikes on Ukraine since the onset of winter, casting some of the attacks as retaliation for Kyiv striking Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombardment was a “cruel” attack and called for the world to rally around Ukraine, against Russia, to bring about a “lasting peace”.
He posted video showing several people lying wounded on the streets, covered with debris, and first responders hoisting victims onto makeshift stretchers.
The strike came hours after Ukrainian drones hit an oil depot that supplies Russia’s air force, hundreds of kilometres (miles) behind the front lines.
“The enemy hit a residential neighbourhood with two guided aerial bombs. We know so far that 13 people are dead,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said in a video published on local media.
Another 29 people were wounded, he added.
He posted a video showing a fire raging in a multi-storey building, with blown-out cars in front, and a photo showing first responders assisting a civilian lying on the ground.
Zelensky said civilians had been targeted deliberately.
“Russia must be put under pressure for its terror,” he said on social media.
“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer.”
Zaporizhzhia had a pre-war population of around 700,000 and lies around 35 kilometres (20 miles) from the frontline in southern Ukraine.
Russia controls swathes of the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region, and claimed to have annexed it in 2022.
Rumours have swirled in Ukraine about a possible fresh Russian offensive towards the regional capital, which has been repeatedly struck by Russian forces since they invaded nearly three years ago.
– Oil depot strike –
Ukraine earlier on Wednesday said its forces had hit an oil depot that the military said supplies Russia’s air force in the Saratov region, some 500 kilometres from the border.
The attack, on a site near the Engels air force base, marks the latest Ukrainian drone strike deep behind the front lines.
The governor of the Saratov region, where the strike happened, reported a large fire was spreading at an “industrial enterprise that was attacked by drones” and introduced a local state of emergency.
Governor Roman Busagrin said on Telegram that two firefighters were killed while battling the blaze.
Unverified images circulating on social media of the attack showed a large fireball rising into the sky at night alongside huge plumes of black smoke.
Ukraine’s general staff said “the destruction of the oil depot creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupants and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects.”
Two people were also killed in Russian artillery and drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, local officials said.
Russia also claimed to have annexed that region and has demanded that Ukraine fully withdraw from both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — along with Donetsk and Lugansk in the east — as a precondition to any peace talks.
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