In the early hours of Sunday (local time), a couple hid under a cover when they heard missiles heading back toward their city. The city has been repeatedly bombarded as Russian and Ukrainian forces fight for control of the land Moscow has unlawfully annexed.
One explosion was followed by another, according to Mucola Markovich.
Then, in a flash, the fourth-floor apartment he shared with his wife was gone, the 76-year-old said, holding back tears as he described the overnight strikes on Zaporizhzhia that brought down a section of an apartment building and left at least a dozen people dead.
“When it will be rebuilt, I don’t know,” he said. “I am left without an apartment at the end of my life.
The attacks come at a time when Russia has seen a string of defeats almost eight months after launching an invasion of Ukraine that many predicted would be short-lived.
While Moscow’s decision to send in more troops sparked protests and a mass migration of Russian citizens, Ukrainian forces recently launched a counteroffensive, retaking territory in the south and east.
The latest setback was an explosion on Saturday (local time) that caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed eight years ago. The attack on the Kerch Bridge damaged an important supply route for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort and a towering symbol of Russia’s power in the region.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, expressed regret for the most recent attack in a post on his Telegram account. Recent combat has been concentrated in the areas just north of Crimea, particularly Zaporizhzhia.
“Zaporizhzhia once more. Once more, in the middle of the night, vicious attacks on humans targeted residential buildings, “He composed. Russian missile attacks on city residential buildings on Thursday resulted in at least 19 fatalities (local time).
“They will answer,” he continued, “from the one who gave this command, to everyone who carried out this order.
According to the Ukrainian air force, the six missiles used in the attack on Sunday night came from Zaporizhzhia region territories that are currently under Russian occupation. Although its capital is still under Ukrainian authority, the area is one of four that Russia claimed as its own this month.
Residents who were in shock observed emergency personnel attempting to access the upper levels of a directly hit building from behind police tape. Where the flats once existed, a gap at least 12 metres wide smouldered.
The barrage tore hundreds of feet worth of windows and doors off of the frames in a neighbouring residential building. City council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev reported that a total of 50 apartment complexes and at least 20 individual dwellings had sustained damage.
The city council first reported 17 fatalities following the attacks, but eventually reduced that number to 12. On Sunday afternoon (local time), regional police announced that 13 people had died and more than 60 people had been injured, at least 10 of them were children.
When Tetyana Lazunko, 73, and her husband Oleksii first heard the air raid sirens, they sought refuge in the corridor of their flat on the top floor. Their belongings were launched into the air as the explosion shook the structure.
Lazunko sobbed uncontrollably as the couple observed the damage to their nearly 50-year-old home.
“What makes them bomb us? Why? “She spoke.
Three volunteers dug a shallow burial for a German shepherd dog that was killed in the hit, having had its leg blown out by the bomb, some 3 km distant in another neighbourhood that had been decimated by a missile.
Russian officials did not respond to inquiries about the strikes right away.
Defense officials have also refrained from directly addressing the explosion that damaged the Kremlin’s treasured Crimea bridge, dealing Moscow a huge blow.
In the meantime, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday (local time) that violent skirmishes were still going on near the eastern Donetsk area cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, where Russian forces had recently claimed some territorial gains.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that the two cities had “the most tense situation” on the entire territory of Ukraine in its regular social media update, however it did not admit any land loss.
After a strike on a Ukrainian residential building, at least 12 people died.
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