Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Twitter Thursday morning details of how Russian forces struck an apartment building in Zaporizhzhia overnight.
Запоріжжя. Ніч. Терористи цинічно б’ють у житловий будинок, де сплять мирні люди. Є загиблі, поранені, безвісти зниклі. Але вже очевидно: ми не дамо російському злу шансів запанувати ні в Україні, ні будь-де у світі. І це зло не уникне відповідальності за скоєні злочини. pic.twitter.com/EKYQu7pJmb
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 2, 2023
A photograph shared in the post shows a large apartment building with much of the center of the building caved in.
Ukraine War Update
“Zaporizhzhia. Night. Terrorists cynically hit a residential building where peaceful people are sleeping,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“There are dead, wounded, missing people. But it is already obvious: we will not give Russian evil a chance to dominate either in Ukraine or anywhere in the world. And this evil will not escape responsibility for the crimes committed.”
Authorities in the city of Zaporizhzhia confirmed on Thursday that a missile struck the building and killed at least four people. Speaking on national television, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, Anatoliy Kurtev, said that 31 people had been evacuated from the building, seven taken for treatment at a nearby hospital, three left in severe condition, and four people, including one pregnant woman, were in the hospital and stable.
Two additional residential buildings in the vicinity of the apartment block were damaged in the strike, causing disruptions to both electricity and water supply. The blast also caused windows to shatter on nearby buildings.
Speaking to Reuters, local resident Yuliia Kharytenko described how people were trapped beneath the rubble following the strike.
“The people were screaming from under the rubble. It was hard to hear. We were shocked,” the 36-year-old woman said. “We ran out in whatever we were wearing. Our cat is left there, scared. We don’t know if it is alive.”
A Horrible Tragedy
Reuters also revealed that a 30-year-old man who was sleeping on a couch in the building became trapped under a large piece of concrete.
A volunteer rescue worker described how workers pulled away rubble for more than three hours to eventually save the man and remove the slab.
“He is alive and well, everything is fine,” the volunteer worker said.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine also shared additional information on Telegram, adding that five people were missing, including one child.
“Debris and blast wave damaged high-rise buildings located nearby, as well as the vehicles of local residents,” the report continues, adding that a pre-trial investigation is now being carried out by the SBU Department for Zaporizhzhia.
The Telegram report also included photographs of the damage, showing close-up shots of the damage caused to the building and local peoples’ cars covered in dust and debris.
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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
