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Several Dead, Wounded In Strike On Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya, Other Regions
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service October 18, 2023
Five people were killed in an overnight rocket attack that struck an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya, the regional governor said on October 18.
Governor Yuriy Malashko initially told RFE/RL that two people died and three were missing after an S-300 anti-aircraft missile hit the building. He announced later on Telegram that the bodies of the three missing people had been found in the rubble of the apartment building.
Five people were injured and have been hospitalized, he said.
The explosion destroyed floors three, four, and five of the residential building, the Interior Ministry said in a statement, on Facebook adding that some 50 residents were evacuated.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack, saying the missile hit "an ordinary five-story building" and said eight apartments had been destroyed.
"We will do everything to make the terrorist state bear fair responsibility. Russian terror must lose," Zelenskiy added.
Malashko told RFE/RL that the strike did not have a clear military purpose. "After all, neither critical infrastructure nor military facilities are nearby. This is the center of the city, where ordinary human life goes on. Why they hit this house in particular is unclear," he said.
Russian strikes killed two more people over the previous 24 hours in southern Ukraine -- one in the southern region of Kherson, and one near the city of Dnipro.
Russia has been constantly shelling and launching air strikes at Ukrainian cities, killing and wounding civilians and causing extensive damage to civilian and energy infrastructure.
In the eastern region of Donetsk, a civilian was killed in the village of Netyalovo when his home was shelled by Russian forces, local authorities said.
Separately, Ukrainian authorities said a man was killed in the northeastern region of Kharkiv when his tractor drove over a landmine.
Meanwhile, Moscow claimed it had repelled Ukrainian drone attacks on occupied Crimea and two Russian regions.
Russia's Defense Ministry says its forces shot down 28 drones that attacked its Kursk and Belgorod regions and Crimea overnight.
The ministry said 10 drones were destroyed above Crimea. Kursk Governor Roman Starovoit said 12 drones were shot down by Russia's air defenses over his region.
Russian-installed regional Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said later on October 18 that Russia shot down a missile over Sevastopol, home of its Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula. The missile detonated in a field and there were no injuries or damage to infrastructure, Razvozhayev said.
Six drones were destroyed by Russian air defenses in the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. No casualties were reported. Ukraine did not comment on the Russian report, which could not be independently verified.
On the battlefield, Ukraine's General Staff said on October 18 that its forces fought 69 close-quarter battles along the whole front line.
Heavy fighting continued around the eastern city of Avdiyivka, just north of Donetsk, where Russian forces have been attempting a breakthrough for the past number of days.
Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiyivka's military administration, told Ukrainian television on October 18 that the Russian offensive represented the largest assault on Avdiyivka since the start of the war in February last year.
But Barabash said that Russian forces appear to have run out of ammunition and troops since they started the attack on Avdiyivka on October 10.
"Less shelling, fewer missile strikes, even fewer assaults on our positions," he said.
With reporting by AFP and Reuters
Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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