Russia targeted Zaporizhzhya overnight with several missiles, one of which struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city, killing and wounding a number of people, regional authorities reported on October 18, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack and said that “Russian terror must lose.”
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Regional governor Yuriy Malashko told RFE/RL that two people died, three are missing, and three others were wounded when the S-300 antiaircraft missile hit the building.
The explosion destroyed floors three, four, and five of the residential building, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, on Facebook adding that some 50 residents were evacuated.
“Terrorists’ missile attacks on the city, on the infrastructure, on a residential building — an ordinary five-story building. Eight apartments were destroyed. There are wounded and dead. There may be people under the rubble. Emergency and rescue operations are ongoing,” Zelenskiy wrote on Facebook.
“We will do everything to make the terrorist state bear fair responsibility. Russian terror must lose,” the Ukrainian present added.
Malashko told RFE/RL that the strike did not have a clear military purpose. “After all, neither critical infrastructure nor military facilities are nearby. This is the center of the city, where ordinary human life goes on. Why they hit this house in particular is unclear,” he said.
Russian strikes killed two more people over the past 24 hours in southern Ukraine — one in the southern region of Kherson, and one near the city of Dnipro.
Russia has been constantly shelling and launching air strikes at Ukrainian cities, killing and wounding civilians and causing extensive damage…
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