At least 17 people were killed and 40 injured when a rocket landed in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday.
According to Anatoly Kurtev, the acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, five homes were burned and apartment complexes were damaged in the incident, CNN said. A ferocious fight is currently raging near the city of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk area, according to earlier remarks made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the nation on Saturday.
“We are holding positions in Donbas, in particular in the Bakhmut direction, where now it is very, very hard, very tough fighting,” Zelensky said, as reported.
“Today, I would like to once again mention our soldiers from the Kholodny Yar 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade for their courage and sustained power in this direction.”
Reportedly, Zaporizhzhia is a significant city in southern Ukraine, close to the front line, and the location of a nuclear power facility that the whole community is nervously observing.
Russian troops have taken control of a portion of the larger area.
Notably, the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv has been worse since Russia announced its annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson areas of Ukraine.
In the Kherson area in the south of the country, Kyiv reclaimed 2,400 square kilometres of territory, “since the commencement of the full-scale battle,” a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday, dealing a significant blow to Moscow’s hold on the conflict.
Six communities in the Kherson district and 61 in the Beryslav district, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy director of the president’s office.
Tymoshenko claimed that despite significant damage being done to vital infrastructure in places like Arkhanhelske, Vysokopillia, and Osokorivka—all of which suffered weeks of intense warfare and indirect fire—civilians were still being evacuated. Demining is ongoing, he continued.
Since commencing an offensive at the end of last month, Ukrainian forces have been advancing steadily in Kherson, and their gains have provoked uncommon criticism of Moscow’s war effort among pro-Russian elites.
In his evening address on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lauded his soldiers’ counteroffensive.
“The Ukrainian army is making a rather fast and powerful advance in the south of our country in the course of the ongoing defensive operation,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address.
“Our warriors do not stop. And it is only a matter of time before we expel the occupiers from all our land.”