Seven Russian missiles targeted the industrial town of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, killing at least 17 people, including one child, according to Ukrainian authorities on Saturday.
Early on Thursday morning, three of the missiles landed in the town’s centre, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometres) from the southern front’s artillery clashes.
The State Emergency Service of Ukraine announced on Telegram that “17 individuals in total were killed,” one of whom was a toddler.
Since the initial count of one deceased, the number has steadily increased. It had been 14 earlier in the day on Saturday.
On the main street, a five-story residential building was nearly levelled.
Zaporizhzhia, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, “is subjected to large rocket strikes every day… (it’s) a planned crime.”
The city under Ukrainian control is situated in the Zaporizhzhia region, which is also the location of the heavily shelled nuclear plant that is under Russian occupation.
Despite not having complete control over the area, Moscow asserts that it has annexed it.
In an attack Kiev attributed to Moscow last week, a convoy of civilian cars in the Zaporizhzhia area was shelled, according to the Ukraine, killing at least 30 people.
