Ukrainian civilians die in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings, houses

More than a dozen people were killed Sunday by Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings and houses in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, an assault that the president of Ukraine called “absolute evil.”

The city, targeted by the pre-dawn attacks on residential homes, has been a Ukrainian-held holdout in a region occupied and annexed by Russia.

The missile strikes came on the heels of an explosion Saturday that damaged a bridge in Crimea that’s served as a critical supply route for Russian military operations in southern Ukraine.

The blast on the 12-mile-long Kerch Bridge, the longest span in Europe, marked a significant blow to Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014. The bridge had become symbolic of Russia’s claims on the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the bridge attack on Ukraine, saying Sunday that it was an “act of terrorism.”

Russia’s missile attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia, the second in three days, killed 13 people, regional police said. More than 60 other people were wounded, including at least 10 children. The previous attack on Thursday killed at least 19 people.

“Again, Zaporizhzhia. Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post.

“Absolute meanness. Absolute evil,” he wrote. “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.”

Zaporizhzhia was one of four regions Russia claimed to annex last week, but the regional capital city of Zaporizhzhia itself has remained under Ukraine control. Russia also claimed to incorporate the provinces of Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk.

Europe’s largest nuclear power station is located in the Zaporizhzhia region under Russian control. The last of its operating reactors was shut down by Ukrainian authorities last month to avoid a possible nuclear disaster.

The missile attack in Zaporizhzhia damaged some 50 apartment buildings and 20 private homes, according to local officials, and at least one high-rise apartment building that took a direct hit collapsed.

Tetyana Lazunko, 73, wept as she and her husband, Oleksii, surveyed the damage to their apartment and asked why military sites were not targeted in the attack.

“Why are they bombing us. Why?” she said.

No one has claimed responsibility for damaging the Kerch Bridge, an attack that is considered significant as Russia’s military efforts falter. Putin personally opened the bridge in 2018 by driving a truck across it.

The Ukrainian president in a video address acknowledged the bridge attack indirectly, saying: “Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny on our state’s territory.

“Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Although it was also warm,” he added.

After the bridge explosion, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced that the chief of its air force, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, would take command of all Russian troops in Ukraine. He was put in charge of troops in southern Ukraine over the summer.

Surovikin led Russian forces in Syria and has been accused of overseeing a bombardment that destroyed much of Aleppo.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said damage from the bridge explosion would restrict some Russian military movements but not cripple Moscow’s means of equipping its troops in Ukraine.

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While not taking responsibility, Ukraine has repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge, and the explosion could trigger a sharp escalation by Russian forces.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament’s lower house, said “consequences will be imminent” if Ukraine was responsible.

The bridge attack “will have a further sapping effort on Russian morale, (and) will give an extra boost to Ukraine’s,” said James Nixey of Chatham House, a think tank in London. “Conceivably the Russians can rebuild it, but they can’t defend it while losing a war.”

In a sign that that tension may be rising among the six nations in the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Kyrgyzstan on Sunday canceled joint military drills less than a day before they were due to start in the Central Asian nation.

The Kyrgyz defense ministry did not specify a reason for canceling the five days of exercises that were due to involve the militaries of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The alliance was formed in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Last month, alliance member Armenia skipped a two-week CSTO drill held in Kazakhstan.

With News Wire Services