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A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has killed at least 13 people, Ukrainian officials said, in one of the deadliest single air attacks for weeks.
Moscow has ramped up its strikes on Ukraine since the onset of winter, casting some of the attacks as retaliation for Kyiv striking Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the bombardment was a “cruel” attack and called for the world to rally around Ukraine, against Russia, to bring about a “lasting peace.”
Zelensky posted a video 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 miles behind the front lines.
“The enemy hit a residential neighborhood with two guided aerial bombs. We know so far that 13 people are dead,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said in a video published in local media.
Another 29 people were wounded, he added.
He posted a video showing a fire raging in a multi-story building, with blown-out cars in front, and a photo showing first responders assisting a civilian lying on the ground.
Zelensky said civilians were targeted deliberately.
“Russia must be put under pressure for its terror,” he said on social media.
“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer.”
Zaporizhzhia had a pre-war population of around 700,000 and lies around 20 miles from the frontline in southern Ukraine.
Russia controls swathes of the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region and claimed to have annexed it in 2022.
Rumors 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.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine fully withdraw from both Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — along with Donetsk and Luhansk in the east — as a precondition to any peace talks.
