Russian strike kills at least 17 inmates in Ukraine prison and Zelenskyy says it and other assaults were intentional

CBS News

5 days ago

Kyiv, Ukraine — Russian glide bombs and ballistic missiles struck a Ukrainian prison and a medical facility overnight and killed at least 22 people across the country, officials said Tuesday, as Russia kept up its relentless pounding of civilian areas despite despite President Trump's threat to punish Russia with sanctions and tariffs soon unless it stops.
Four powerful Russian glide bombs hit a prison in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, authorities said. They killed at least 17 inmates and wounded more than 80 others, officials said.
In the Dnipro region of central Ukraine, authorities said Russian missiles partially destroyed a three-story building and damaged nearby medical facilities, including a maternity hospital and a city hospital ward. Officials said at least four people were killed and eight injured, including a pregnant woman who was in a serious condition.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that across the country, 22 people were killed in Russian strikes on 73 cities, towns and villages. "These were conscious, deliberate strikes - not accidental," Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
The strike came three years after one on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers, French news agency AFP points out.
Mr. Trump said Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war, moving up a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago. The move meant Mr. Trump wants to see progress in peace efforts by Aug. 7-9. Moscow had rejected the 50-day deadline.
Zelenskyy welcomed Mr. Trump's move on the timeline. "Everyone needs peace - Ukraine, Europe, the United States, and responsible leaders across the globe," Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. "Everyone except Russia."
Mr. Trump has repeatedly rebuked Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. But the Kremlin hasn't changed its tactics.
"I'm disappointed in President Putin," Trump said during a visit to Scotland.
The Kremlin pushed back, however, with a top Putin lieutenant warning Mr. Trump against "playing the ultimatum game with Russia."
"Russia isn't Israel or even Iran," former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy head of the country's Security Council, wrote on X.
"Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country," Medvedev said.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Kremlin has warned Kyiv's Western backers that their involvement could end up broadening the war to NATO countries.
"Kremlin officials continue to frame Russia as in direct geopolitical confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against NATO," the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late Monday.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. They say 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralized by Ukrainian air defenses.
The Russian attack close to midnight Monday hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Facility with four guided aerial bombs, according to the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine.
Glide bombs, which are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with retractable fins and guidance systems, have been laying waste to cities in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army is trying to pierce Ukrainian defenses. The bombs carry up to 6,600 pounds of explosives.
At least 42 inmates were hospitalized with serious injuries, while another 40 people, including one staff member, sustained various injuries.
The strike destroyed the prison's dining hall, damaged administrative and quarantine buildings, but the perimeter fence held and no escapes were reported, authorities said.
Ukrainian officials condemned the attack, calling targeting civilian infrastructure, such as prisons, a war crime under international conventions.
Further Russian attacks hit communities in Synelnykivskyi district with FPV drones and aerial bombs, killing at least one person and injuring two others, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said.
Russian forces also targeted the community of Velykomykhailivska, killing a 75-year-old woman and injuring a 68-year-old man, according to Lysak.
Ukraine has sought to fight back against Russian strikes by developing its own long-range drone technology, hitting oil depots, weapons plants and disrupting commercial flights.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that air defenses downed 74 Ukrainian drones over several regions overnight, including 43 over the Bryansk region.
Yuri Slyusar, the head of the Rostov region, said a man in the city of Salsk was killed in a drone attack, which started a fire at the Salsk railway station.
Officials said a cargo train was set ablaze at the Salsk station and railway traffic via Salsk was suspended. Explosions shattered windows in two cars of a passenger train and passengers were evacuated.