Deadly spate of Russian missile, drone strikes hit residential structures in Ukraine
CBC
Russia blasted an apartment block in Ukraine with missiles on Wednesday and swarmed cities with drone attacks overnight in a display of force, as Russian President Vladimir Putin bid farewell to his visiting "dear friend" and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Firefighters battled a blaze in two adjacent residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia, where officials said at least one person was killed and 33 wounded by twin missile strikes.
In Rzhyshchiv, a riverside town south of the Ukrainian capital, at least eight people were killed and seven injured after a drone struck two college dormitories, regional police Chief Andrii Nebytov said.
"Right now, residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter, with security camera video showing one building exploding.
"This must not become 'just another day' in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world. The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives."
A playground and a car park at the scene in Zaporizhzhia were littered with glass, debris and wrecked cars. Emergency workers carried out the wounded or escorted those who could walk.
An elderly woman with scratches on her face sat alone on a bench, wiping tears and whispering prayers.
"When I got out, there was destruction, smoke, people screaming, debris. Then the firefighters and rescuers came," said resident Ivan Nalyvaiko, 24.
During the night, sirens blared across the capital Kyiv and swaths of northern Ukraine, and the military said it had shot down 16 of 21 Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones. Eight were shot down near the capital, according to the city's military administration. Other drones struck west-central Khmelnytskyi province.
Zelenskyy visited troops near the front line. His office released video of him handing out medals to soldiers that it said was filmed near Bakhmut, the eastern city where Ukrainian forces are mounting a defence in what has become Europe's deadliest infantry battle since the Second World War.
"It is painful to see the cities of Donbas ... to which Russia has brought terrible suffering and ruin," Zelenskyy said in a nightly video address, referring to the larger eastern region around Bakhmut that Russia claims as its territory.
He cited nearly constant sounds of air raid sirens in the city of Kramatorsk and threats of shelling.
International bodies estimate that rebuilding Ukraine will cost $411 billion US — 2.6 times Ukraine's 2022 gross domestic product.
Also Wednesday, the Russian-backed administration in Sevastopol suspended ferry routes around the Crimean port city, shortly after its governor said air defences repelled a Ukrainian drone attack.
