Ukraine updates: Zaporizhzhia hit by ‘massive’ strikes – DW – 09/29/2024

Russian air defenses have shot down 125 Ukrainian drones, according to the country’s Defense Ministry. 

Authorities in the southwestern city of Voronezh reported damage from falling debris. Fires also reportedly broke out. 

Several cars, two apartments and a children’s playground were damaged, said Governor Alexander Gusev. No one was hurt, he added.

In addition to Voronezh, the border regions of Belgorod and Rostov were particularly targeted, while the Bryansk, Kursk and Krasnodar regions were also attacked in isolated cases, according to the Defense Ministry. 

Ukraine, defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion, often attacks targets on Russian territory to hit military supplies. 

At least 11 people were wounded in a series of Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, officials said.

Ukrainian emergency services said in a statement that the regional capital was hit by several “massive aerial strikes” at dawn.

“A building and six houses in different city neighborhoods suffered a lot of destruction,” said the statement, adding that 42 members of the emergency services were helping those potentially trapped under the rubble.

“According to preliminary information, the number of wounded has risen to 11,” the emergency services said, adding that rescue operations had ended. One woman who was pulled from the rubble was taken to hospital.

The regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, said earlier that Zaporizhzhia had been hit by 10 Russian strikes that destroyed “a multi-story building and some houses.”

Russia illegally annexed the Zaporizhzhia region in 2022, but the main city of the same name remains under Kyiv’s control.

dh/nm (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)