Six people were killed and nine others injured in a Russian strike Tuesday morning on the town of Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine. The deadly attack hit an “infrastructure site,” regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram. “a fire broke out” at the scene.
Shortly before the strike, the air alert due to the risk of ballistic missile attack was triggered. Europe's largest nuclear power plant, occupied by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began in early 2022, is in the region.
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The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Iermak reacted on Telegram by calling on the West to do more to help Ukraine. “Zaporizhia. A new Russian attack, there are dead and wounded. The violence must be stopped with firm action. Allies must act more firmly,” he insisted. kyiv accuses the West of timidity in the face of Russia, at a time when the latter is accelerating its conquests in eastern Ukraine and is accused of deploying North Korean troops to fight Ukraine.
The risk of opening a new front in the south
Divided by the Dnieper River, the city of Zaporizhia, which had more than 700,000 inhabitants before this war, is approximately 35 kilometers as the crow flies from Russian positions. Several Ukrainian media and military bloggers have raised in recent days the risk of a possible Russian offensive in the region, where bombings have intensified in recent weeks. It would thus add to Moscow's main assault on the eastern front, where the Ukrainian army has been forced to retreat for months.
The Kremlin, whose forces control part of the Zaporizhia region, claimed the annexation of the entire territory at the end of 2022.
