Children among dozens injured after Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia – Ukraine war live
One person has died and dozens have been injured, including children, in Zaporizhzhia after a reported Russian strike on a five-story residential building, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday morning.
“All emergency services are engaged at the site,” said Zelenskyy. He added that Volyn, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Rivne, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv regions were all affected by the attack. “Numerous fires broke out, and civilian infrastructure – homes and businesses – suffered the most damage,” he said. According to Zelenskyy, Russia launched “nearly 540 drones, 8 ballistic missiles, and 37 other types of missiles against civilian life”.
In a social media post on X, Zelenskyy wrote:
We saw the world’s response to the previous strike. But now, as Russia once again shows its utter disregard for words, we count on real action.
It is absolutely clear that Moscow used the time meant for preparing a leaders-level meeting to organise new massive attacks.
The only way to reopen a window of opportunity for diplomacy is through tough measures against all those bankrolling the Russian army and effective sanctions against Moscow itself – banking and energy sanctions.
This war won’t stop with political statements alone; real steps are needed. We expect action from the US, Europe, and the entire world.
In other developments:
Vladimir Putin will travel to China this weekend for what the Kremlin has called a “truly unprecedented” visit to his most important ally, which comes at a crunch moment in talks over Ukraine.
Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region came under a “massive attack” early on Saturday, the region’s governor said, reporting strikes in Dnipro and Pavlograd. “The region is under a massive attack. Explosions are being heard,” Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram, warning residents to take cover. He said overnight Russian strikes killed two people in Dnipropetrovsk, which had been largely spared from intense fighting since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Kyiv acknowledged on Tuesday that Russian troops had entered the region.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that Donald Trump risked being “played” by Putin if a Russia-Ukraine peace summit did not go ahead. Macron expressed hope that the two-way meeting would take place but warned if Russia did not meet a Monday deadline to agree to the talks, “it will show again President Putin has played President Trump”.
Zelenskyy said he expected to continue talks with European leaders next week on “Nato-like” commitments to protect Ukraine, adding that Trump should also be involved. “We need the architecture to be clear to everyone,” he said, adding that he wanted to tell Trump “how we see it”.
EU defence ministers meeting in Copenhagen on Friday expressed “broad support” for expanding the bloc’s military training mission to operate inside Ukraine, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said. “The EU has already trained over 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers,” Kallas wrote on X. “We must be ready to do more.”