A Russian air strike killed at least 13 people and injured dozens in Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine on Wednesday, as the Russian city of Engels declared a local state of emergency after a drone strike set an oil facility on fire near a large military airbase.
“Russians struck Zaporizhzhia with aerial bombs. It was a deliberate strike on the city. As of now dozens of people are reported wounded...Tragically we know of 13 people killed,” said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer. Russia must be put under pressure for its terror. The protection of lives in Ukraine must be supported. Only through strength can such a war be ended with a lasting peace.”
The bomb hit a busy part of Zaporizhzhia as people were going home from work, and officials said a high-rise building, an industrial facility and passing trams, minibuses and cars were hit by shrapnel and set ablaze.
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Russia said its cities of Saratov and Engels – which sit on opposite banks of the Volga river some 750km from Ukraine – came under attack from Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Wednesday. Local governor Roman Busargin said an unnamed industrial site had been set on fire, and later announced that a local state of emergency had been declared in the area as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blaze and two were killed in the process.
“The Kristall plant, an oil storage facility in Engels, Saratov region, was attacked last night. Numerous explosions were recorded in the area of the target, and a large-scale fire broke out,” the Ukrainian military said.
“It should be noted that this oil facility supplied fuel to the Engels-2 military airfield, where the enemy’s strategic aviation is based...The destruction of the oil facility creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupiers and significantly reduces their ability to strike peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian sites.”
Ukraine also said its forces had hit an enemy command post in the occupied Donetsk region with a “precision strike”, days after saying a similar operation reportedly destroyed a command post for Russian marines in the Kursk region of western Russia.
US president Joe Biden’s administration is expected to unveil its last package of military support for Kyiv on Thursday, when officials from dozens of states that aid Ukraine meet in Germany 11 days before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Mr Trump claimed on Tuesday – incorrectly – that Mr Biden had broken a long-standing western pledge to Russia that Ukraine would never join Nato. “Well, then Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feelings about that,” he added.
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