Zaporizhzhia glide bombs kill 15, three children among dead

Zaporizhzhia came under a Russian glide bomb attack early on Saturday that killed at least 15 people, three of them children, Ukraine’s president said.

According to Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian aircraft dropped five guided bombs on apartment buildings in the south-eastern city. Emergency crews counted at least 16 injured, and they believed more residents lay trapped under the rubble.

The bombs struck at about 4:48 a.m. local time and damaged homes across two districts. One of them hit a five-storey apartment block directly, and images from the scene showed most of the building destroyed.

Acting Mayor Regina Kharchenko told local television that a strike on the ground floor brought down every floor above it.

Rescuers search Zaporizhzhia rubble

More than 80 rescuers joined the search, and officials expected the work to last all day. Crews paused from time to time to listen for any sound from people trapped beneath the debris.

Meanwhile, the toll climbed through the morning. Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the regional military administration, first reported seven deaths, then 11, as teams pulled more bodies from the ruins. Later, Zelensky put the number at 15.

In Kharchenko’s words, Russia hit “our very heart”, and “our littlest ones” died in the attack. She called the deaths “awful grief” for the families and for the whole city.

The bombing damaged 26 or more homes across the Shevchenkivskyi and Voznesenivskyi districts, city officials said. Of these, 23 were apartment blocks and three were private houses, while three buildings suffered heavy damage.

Zelensky links attack to diesel deal

The raid followed within hours of a Trump announcement on importing Russian diesel into the US. Zelensky said Russia had “thanked” the world for the sanctions relief by bombing homes.

“Russia interprets any easing of pressure as a signal,” he wrote, adding that Moscow believed it could go on with the war. In his view, Moscow would only stop once it felt its own losses.

He also said 13 other Ukrainian regions came under attack overnight, with damage to homes, energy sites and railway lines. “Our responses to Russian strikes will follow,” Zelensky said.

A city near the front line

Home to over 700,000 people, Zaporizhzhia is a key regional hub. Yet the front line sits under 16 km (10 miles) away, which leaves the city exposed to frequent Russian drone and missile fire.

In fact, Saturday’s raid was the second morning in a row of heavy bombing on Zaporizhzhia. On Friday, six guided bombs killed one man and wounded 23 people, regional authorities said. That attack also partly destroyed an apartment building and hit a school for children.

Across Ukraine, Russian strikes have turned deadlier in recent days. In Kramatorsk on Thursday, a glide bomb tore into two buses carrying civilians, leaving at least 33 people dead.

The previous day, a Russian missile slammed into a block of flats in Pryluky, east of Kyiv, leaving 22 dead, five of them children.

UN figures show civilian casualties in Ukraine climbed 55% over the first eight months of the year. Meanwhile, Moscow and Kyiv have each intensified strikes on infrastructure lately, with no end to the war in sight.