A Russian-guided bomb attack on Wednesday killed at least 13 people and injured 113 others in Ukraine‘s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities. The explosion left bodies scattered across the road while injured residents lay nearby, awaiting help. The strike also caused significant damage to public transportation in the area.
By Thursday morning, prosecutors updated the number of injured from 63 to 113. Rescue operations at the attack site were concluded by Wednesday evening.
High-rise apartment blocks were damaged along with an industrial facility and other infrastructure, Ukraine’s prosecutor general office said on Telegram. The debris hit a tram and a bus with passengers inside, it added.
Russian troops had used two guided bombs to hit a residential area, the regional governor Ivan Fedorov told media. Ten of the 60 people in the hospital after the attack remain in serious condition, Fedorov said, adding that Thursday would be an official day of mourning.
On Thursday, he told national television that the city’s medical services received the biggest number of requests for help following an attack since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X, urging Ukraine’s Western allies to step up pressure on Russia.
Regional authorities reported further explosions after the first strike hit.
Fedorov said Russian troops shelled the town of Stepnohirsk, south of Zaporizhzhia, killing two people. Two residents were pulled alive from underneath rubble.
Russia regularly conducts airstrikes on the Zaporizhzhia region, a territory its forces partially control. Moscow claims to have annexed this region along with four others, including Crimea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne reported that two people were killed and 10 others injured in attacks targeting several locations in the southern region of Kherson, which is also partially occupied by Russian forces.
Team BharatShakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
