A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 people, Ukrainian officials said, one of the deadliest single air attacks for weeks in the three-year war.
Moscow has ramped up its strikes on Ukraine since the onset of winter, casting some of the attacks as retaliation for Kyiv firing on Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Wednesday’s bombardment cruel” and called for the world to rally around Ukraine, and against Russia, to bring about a “lasting peace”.
He posted video footage showing several people lying wounded on the streets, covered with debris, and first responders hoisting victims onto makeshift stretchers.
The strike came hours after Ukrainian drones hit an oil depot that supplies Russia’s air force, hundreds of kilometres (miles) behind the front lines, triggering a blaze that claimed the lives of two Russian firefighters.
“The Russians conducted two strikes with guided aerial bombs on the city of Zaporizhzhia. They exploded among crowds of people,” Ukraine’s interior ministry said in a statement.
Thirteen people were killed and at least 30 wounded in the attack, Zelensky said, accusing Russia of deliberately targeting civilians.
“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer,” he said in a message on social media.
“This again demonstrates what Russia really wants. They want only war and only victims.”
The Ukrainian leader will attend a meeting of Ukraine’s key allies in Germany on Thursday in a bid to rally support for Kyiv.
It will be the last Ramstein meeting — named after the air base in Germany where the gatherings take place — before US President-elect Donald Trump assumes office.
Trump has threatened to cut vital military aid to Ukraine and pledged a swift end to the war — raising fears in Kyiv he could force it to accept peace terms favourable to Moscow.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and the outgoing US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will also travel to Germany for the meeting.
Oil depot strike
Zaporizhzhia had a pre-war population of around 700,000 and lies around 35 kilometres (20 miles) from the frontline in southern Ukraine.
Russia controls swathes of the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region, and claims to have annexed it in 2022.
Rumours have swirled in Ukraine about a possible fresh Russian offensive towards the regional capital, which has been repeatedly struck by Russian forces since they invaded nearly three years ago.
Another Russian strike on Wednesday killed two people in the village of Stepnogirsk, around 30 kilometres south of Zaporizhzhia and close to the frontline, Governor Ivan Fedorov said on social media.
Four people became trapped under a house that was hit by Russian shelling there, two were pulled from the rubble but the other two were found dead, he said.
Ukraine earlier on Wednesday said its forces had hit an oil depot it said supplies Russia’s air force in the Saratov region, some 500 kilometres from the border.
The attack, on a site near the Engels air force base, marks the latest Ukrainian drone strike deep behind the front lines.
The governor of the Saratov region, where the strike happened, reported a large fire was spreading at an “industrial enterprise that was attacked by drones” and introduced a local state of emergency.
Governor Roman Busagrin said on Telegram that two firefighters were killed while battling the blaze.
Unverified images circulating on social media of the attack showed a large fireball rising into the sky at night alongside huge plumes of black smoke.
Ukraine’s general staff said “the destruction of the oil depot creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupants and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects.”
Two people were also killed in Russian artillery and drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, local officials said.
Russia claimed to have annexed that region and has demanded that Ukraine fully withdraw from both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — along with Donetsk and Lugansk in the east — as a precondition to any peace talks.
