Russian Drone Strike on Zaporizhzhia Injures Five as Fires Sweep Buildings
Five people were injured and fires broke out across Zaporizhzhia after a large-scale Russian drone attack, Ukrainian authorities said.
A large-scale Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight injured five people and set buildings ablaze, local emergency officials said on Monday.
According to Oleksii Puga, a representative of the Zaporizhzhia regional State Emergency Service, the strike hit the regional centre and left five people wounded. Five others were rescued and 14 were evacuated, while psychologists from the emergency service provided assistance to 16 residents.
Two nine-storey apartment buildings were damaged, with fires covering an area of about 110 square metres. A separate fire at a shopping centre spread across roughly 1,300 square metres, Puga said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bombardment late on Sunday struck apartment blocks, a university and a shopping mall, among other sites. He added that Russia also attacked nine other regions of the country.
Ukraine's Air Force said its defences shot down or suppressed 148 Russian drones. The assault began at 6 pm on Sunday, with Russia launching 172 drones from multiple locations in Russia and in occupied Ukrainian territory. The wave included 64 jet-powered Shahed drones as well as decoys and other types of drones. Drone hits were recorded at 14 locations, while debris from downed drones fell at four sites.
The attack followed a major Ukrainian drone offensive against Russia between Saturday and Sunday, which included hundreds of drones aimed at Moscow as voters cast ballots on the third and final day of a parliamentary election. Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday that its air defences had downed 244 Ukrainian drones overnight over Russian regions and the waters of the Black Sea.