Russian strikes on penal colony in Zaporizhzhia kill 16, Ukraine says
Zaporizhzhia governor Ivan Fedorov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that the correctional facility's buildings were destroyed, and nearby private homes were also damaged.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, condemned the strikes as "another war crime" committed by Russia.
"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's regime, which also issues threats against the United States through some of its mouthpieces, must face economic and military blows that strip it of the capacity to wage war," Yermak said on X.
Moscow forces have regularly attacked Zaporizhzhia, using drones, missiles and aerial bombs, since the start of the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia unilaterally declared early in the war its annexation of parts of Zaporizhzhia and areas in and around three other Ukrainian regions. Kyiv and its Western allies called the move an illegal land grab.
Fedorov said that Russian forces launched eight strikes on the Zaporizhzhia district, reportedly using high-explosive aerial bombs.
Reuters could not independently verify Fedorov's report. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes, but thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
What is the significance of Russia's claimed capture of Ukrainian town Chasiv Yar?
MOSCOW, July 31 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday it had taken full control of the shattered town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fighting, an assertion which Kyiv dismissed as "propaganda". Following are key facts about Chasiv Yar, which Russians call Chasov Yar, and the long battle for its control which began in March/April 2024. With a pre-war population of more than 12,000, Chasiv Yar (Quiet Ravine) sits in the industrial Donbas area in Ukraine's Donetsk region, one of four regions that Moscow claimed to have annexed in 2022, something Kyiv called an illegal land grab. Dissected by a canal, the town's pre-war economy centred on a factory that produced reinforced concrete products and clay used in bricks. Located on higher ground, it once served as a regrouping point and as a forward artillery base for the Ukrainian army. It was regarded by the Russian military as one of Ukraine's best defended strongholds due to its geography, elevated position, terrain and factories and apartment blocks where Ukrainian forces were able to dig in. Russia's capture of the town, if confirmed, would advance Moscow's grinding effort to encircle the "fortress city" of Kostiantynivka which it is trying to envelop in a pincer movement, and remove what had become an obstacle to its army's advance westwards across the rest of Donetsk. Russian military analysts list Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka as the "fortress cities" in Ukraine's east accessible from Chasiv Yar if Moscow's forces can get there, something Kyiv is determined to stop. Russian analysts say their military will use Chasiv Yar as a base to target Ukrainian forces in northern Donetsk with artillery and drone fire and to try to hamper Ukrainian supply lines in the area. But holding ground and advancing northwards will not be easy, war blogger Rybar said. Military analysts on both sides say the battle has been one of the longest of the war and one of the most grinding engagements with high but undisclosed casualties on both sides. Russia's Defence Ministry said on Thursday its paratroopers had covered more than 20 km (12 miles) under Ukrainian artillery and drone fire in their push to take the town and had cleared more than 4,200 buildings and structures. Reuters could not confirm that assertion. Ukraine says its fierce and prolonged resistance in Chasiv Yar shows how it has been able to slow and inflict heavy casualties on a numerically-superior force, including with the help of its drone units. Ukrainian analysts have downplayed Chasiv Yar's importance and suggested Russia taking it would be a Pyrrhic victory given the high price Kyiv has forced Moscow to pay for the town and how long it has been able to hold off Russian forces. Some Russian analysts say that the town's capture would be a tactical victory rather than a strategic one. Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said the battle had gone on for so long that Chasiv Yar had lost its strategic importance. "But the capture of the city has symbolic significance: this is how the war could continue for many years to come - slowly, slowly, the Russian army will advance," Markov wrote on Telegram. Most of the town lies in ruins and pulverised after extensive shelling, air strikes and glide bomb and drone attacks by Russian forces. Ukraine says a Russian strike on residential buildings in the town in 2022 killed at least 43 people. Russia says those killed were Ukrainian troops. The mayor of the town left long ago and most of its inhabitants were evacuated as its utilities - power, gas and water - were destroyed. Only 304 residents remained in the area as of November last year, sheltering in basements, according to Serhii Chaus, the head of the town's Ukrainian military administration. The Russian military said on Thursday that its forces had evacuated 65 civilians.
Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump wants deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine by Aug. 8, US tells UN
UNITED NATIONS, July 31 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants a deal to end Russia's war in Ukraine by August 8, the United States told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday. 'Both Russia and Ukraine must negotiate a ceasefire and durable peace. It is time to make a deal. President Trump has made clear this must be done by August 8. The United States is prepared to implement additional measures to secure peace,' senior U.S. diplomat John Kelley told the 15-member council.
Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russian strikes kill 12 people in Kyiv, 6-year-old boy among dead
KYIV, July 31 (Reuters) - Russia launched waves of missiles and drones on Kyiv before dawn on Thursday, killing 12 people including a six-year-old boy, and wounding 135 others, officials in the Ukrainian capital said. Over 1,200 police and rescuers dealt with the consequences of the attack and the Interior Ministry said that searches for people buried under rubble continued past 4:30 p.m. (1330 GMT). President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles. "Today the world has once again seen Russia's response to our desire for peace ... Therefore, peace without strength is impossible," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app. City authorities announced a day of mourning to be held on Friday for the victims. Russia's Defence Ministry said it targeted and hit Ukrainian military airfields and ammunition depots as well as businesses linked to what it called Kyiv's military-industrial complex. The Interior Ministry said 11 children were wounded, the largest number hurt in a single attack on the city since Russia started its full-scale invasion almost three and a half years ago. Explosions rocked Kyiv from about midnight onwards and blazes lit up the night sky. Yurii Kravchuk, 62, stood wrapped in a blanket next to a damaged building with a bandage around his head. He had heard the missile alert but did not get to a shelter in time, he told Reuters. "I started waking up my wife and then there was an explosion. My daughter ended up in the hospital," he said. Russia, which denies deliberately targeting civilians in the war, has stepped up air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far from the front lines of the war - situated in the east and south - in recent months. Thousands of civilians, the vast majority of them Ukrainian, have been killed since Moscow invaded in 2022. Kyiv and Moscow have held three rounds of talks in Istanbul this year that yielded exchanges of prisoners and bodies, but no breakthrough to defuse the conflict. At one location in Kyiv, rescuers spent more than three hours reaching a man trapped in rubble by cutting through the wall of a neighbouring apartment, the Interior Ministry said. The man talked to the emergency services during the operation and was pulled out alive, it added. A five-month-old baby was among the wounded, with five children hospitalised, the head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said on national television. Schools and hospitals were among the buildings damaged across 27 locations in the capital, officials said. "The attack was extremely insidious and deliberately calculated to overload the air defence system," Zelenskiy wrote on X. He posted a video of burning ruins, saying people were still trapped under the rubble of one partially-ruined residential building as of the morning. The president said the attacks had killed a six-year-old and the boy's mother, but later edited the post to remove reference to the mother. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Washington would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia "10 days from today" if Moscow showed no progress toward ending the conflict. "This is Putin's response to Trump's deadlines," Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. "The world must respond with a tribunal and maximum pressure." The air force reported five direct missile hits and 21 drone hits in 12 locations. Ukrainian air defence units downed 288 drones and three cruise missiles, the air force added.
