Russian forces struck the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with five guided aerial bombs early Saturday morning, hitting residential neighborhoods and killing at least 20 people, including three children, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s emergency services.
At least 18 people were injured, with more missing and believed trapped under rubble as search-and-rescue teams worked through the day, the BBC reported. The bombs destroyed the entrance of a three-story apartment block and damaged at least 26 residential buildings, Ukrainian authorities said.
“The ground floor was hit, and the floors above just collapsed,” acting Mayor Regina Kharchenko told Ukrainian television from the scene.
Attack comes hours after U.S.-Russia diesel deal
The strike came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal to import Russian diesel into the United States, drawing some of Zelenskyy’s sharpest criticism yet of the White House. “Today, Russia said thank you for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
Zelenskyy also said 13 other regions came under attack overnight, with Ukraine’s air force reporting that Russia launched 160 drones, of which 117 were shot down or suppressed. He warned that Moscow treats any easing of pressure as a signal it can keep striking cities, and said Russia must be made to feel its losses.
The attack follows a week of high-casualty strikes across Ukraine: 33 people were killed in a glide-bomb attack on buses in Kramatorsk on Thursday, and 22, including five children, died when a missile hit an apartment block in Pryluky earlier in the week, according to Ukrainian officials. The United Nations says civilian casualties in Ukraine jumped 55 percent in the first eight months of this year.
This is a developing story; the death toll was rising through Saturday as rescuers searched the rubble.
Sources: BBC; Reuters; Agence France-Presse; Ukrainian State Emergency Service.
UPDATE (Oct. 10, 5:45 PM EDT): The death toll from Saturday’s strike on Zaporizhzhia has risen to 20, including three children, with 18 others wounded, according to updated reporting from The Associated Press and Reuters citing Ukrainian authorities. Earlier reports listed 15 dead and 16 injured as rescuers continued searching the rubble.
