Deadly Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia

(Keystone-ATS) “Three people are in extremely serious condition,” Governor Ivan Fedorov said on television. The “missile” shot hit an “infrastructure site” and injured 23 people, he added. “The fire that broke out on the scene was able to be extinguished,” the governor said on Telegram at midday.

Shortly before the strike, an air alert due to a risk of ballistic missile attack had been triggered in the region which also houses the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, occupied by Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Risk of new offensive

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 Westerners of being timid in the face of Russia, while the latter is accused of deploying North Korean troops to fight Ukraine and is accelerating its conquests in the east of this country, using its superiority in weapons and men.

Watered by the Dnieper, the city of Zaporizhia, the capital of the eponymous region, had more than 700,000 inhabitants before this war. It is approximately 35 kilometers as the crow flies from Russian positions and 50 kilometers from the nuclear power plant of the same name.

Russian offensive in sight?

Several Ukrainian military media and bloggers have mentioned in recent days the risk of a possible Russian offensive in this region. Russian bombings on Zaporizhia have also intensified in recent weeks.

Such an operation would thus add to the main Russian assault on the eastern front, where the Ukrainian army has been retreating for months.

The Kremlin, whose forces control part of the Zaporizhia region, claimed the annexation of the entire territory at the end of 2022.

Attacks in the east

On the same day Tuesday, another Russian bombing caused the death of two people, 48-year-old civilians, in Glushkivka, a village in the Kharkiv region, in northeastern Ukraine.

Russian forces are also putting pressure on this region, particularly on the city of Kupiansk where the authorities have urged the population to flee. Also in the east, two civilians died in a town near the town of Lisitchansk, in the Lugansk region, whose annexation Moscow also claims.