Russian strikes kill 3, wound dozens in Ukraine overnight
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A resident in her flat in Zaporizhzhia on Jan 23 after her apartment building was hit by a Russian missile.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine – Russian aerial attacks on front-line towns in eastern and central Ukraine on Jan 23 killed at least three people and wounded dozens, officials said.
The authorities said a 53-year-old woman was killed by a Russian bombardment in the front-line town of Kostyantynivka and a 54-year-old by a Russian drone strike on a village in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.
Emergency services in the central city of Zaporizhzhia earlier announced that one person was killed and said 51 were wounded – including four firefighters and a two-month-old – in an overnight drone and missile attack.
Rescuers posted images of a destroyed building and a damaged fire truck they said were hit in the apparent double-tap attack.
Russia fired drones and missiles at intervals, the authorities said, explaining that firefighters had been wounded in “the second” attack.
“We need more sanctions against Russia, more air defence systems to protect our cities and communities, and more weapons for our warriors on the front lines,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
The industrial city of Zaporizhzhia had an estimated population of more than 700,000 people before the Russian invasion in February 2022, and lies about 35km from the front line.
The wider region is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and was claimed by the Kremlin as Russian territory in late 2022.
At least 13 people were killed in the city earlier in January in one of the single deadliest attacks in weeks of the nearly three-year war.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired four Iskander missiles at Zaporizhzhia in the attack.
It also said Ukrainian air defence systems had shot down 57 drones, including the Iranian-designed Shahed attack variety.
The Zaporizhzhia attack was the latest in an intensifying series of strikes on southern Ukraine as both Moscow and Kyiv vie for advantage in the early days of US President Donald Trump’s administration. AFP
