HOME / WORLD / ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINE
Russian Strike Flattens Zaporizhzhia Apartment Block, Death Toll Climbs to 17
Ukraine has declared a day of mourning after glide bombs tore through residential buildings in the southeastern city, as the UN says more than 100 civilians were killed nationwide this week alone.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, UKRAINE — A Russian glide-bomb strike on residential buildings here has killed at least 17 people, including three children, with the toll still climbing as rescue crews dig through rubble and officials say several people remain unaccounted for.
Regional authorities said the attack damaged 26 residential buildings across the city, including a direct hit on a five-story apartment block, according to the Kyiv Post's reporting. At least 16 to 18 others were injured. Ukraine has declared Sunday, October 11, a national day of mourning for the victims, per Ukrinform's live coverage of the aftermath, which has tracked the death toll rising through the day as search crews continued working.
The strike landed amid one of the heaviest weeks of the war in months. The United Nations Security Council was told this week that more than 100 civilians have been killed and at least 429 others injured across Ukraine in the span of just seven days, with the UN's human rights chief calling the pattern of attacks on civilians "reprehensible," per UN News' account of the briefing.
UKRAINIAN AIR DEFENSES SAY THEY SHOT DOWN 117 OF 160 RUSSIAN DRONES LAUNCHED OVERNIGHT
Russia has leaned heavily on mass drone barrages in recent nights alongside the glide-bomb strikes, while Ukraine has kept up its own campaign against Russian energy infrastructure — hitting an oil terminal in Rostov-on-Don and a factory in Tver Oblast that reportedly makes fuel components for cruise missiles. Kyiv has said it will continue striking refineries without an energy-related truce, even as diplomats from the U.S., Ukraine and European governments met this week in Miami in a bid to find a path toward ending the war before winter.
Those talks reportedly broke up early, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has separately criticized a Trump-backed arrangement allowing continued Russian diesel exports, arguing it would only help bankroll further strikes like Saturday's. Ukrainian military officials say frontline fighting has also intensified, with more than 200 clashes logged in the past 24 hours alone, concentrated around the Pokrovsk and Huliaipole sectors.
For families in Zaporizhzhia, the diplomatic maneuvering offers little comfort. With search crews still combing wreckage for the missing as of Saturday evening, local officials say the final toll from the strike is all but certain to rise further before the day of mourning even begins.