A Russian checkpoint hit apartment buildings and other targets in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 17 others and wounding dozens, officials said Sunday.
The explosions in the city, which remains under Ukraine but is in a domain Moscow has claimed as its own, blew up the windows of adjacent buildings and left at least one high-rise building partially collapsed.
The measures came after an explosion on Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with Russia. a symbol of fulfillment of Russia’s strength in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday attacked a “terrorist act” orchestrated through Ukraine’s special services.
“There is no doubt that this was a terrorist act aimed at destroying civilian infrastructure of great importance to the Russian Federation,” Putin said at an assembly with chairman of the Russian investigative committee, Alexander Bastrykin. “And the perpetrators, the perpetrators and those who ordered it are the special facilities of Ukraine. “
Bastrykin said Ukrainian special citizens and citizens of Russia and other countries participated in the attack. He said a thief investigation had been opened for a terrorist act.
“We have already established the direction of the truck,” he said, adding that he had visited Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar, a region in southern Russia.
In Kyiv, presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak Putin’s accusation is “too cynical even for Russia. “
“Putin accuses Ukraine of terrorism?” He said: “Not even 24 hours have passed since Russian jets fired 12 rockets at a residential domain in Zaporizhzhia, killing thirteen others and wounding more than 50. No, there is only one state terrorist and everyone knows who he is. “. “
Podolyak cited missile movements in the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight that toppled part of a giant building. The six missiles were introduced from Russian-occupied areas in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
The bombing of the bridge came a day after Putin’s 70th birthday, causing a humiliating blow that an army analyst described as a punch to Putin’s face on his birthday, CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata reports.
The rockets that hit Zaporizhzhia overnight destroyed at least 20 private houses and 50 apartment buildings, city council secretary Anatoly Kurtev said. At least 40 other people were hospitalized, Kurtev said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian army showed the attack, there were dozens of casualties.
Residents piled up a police strip near a building where several floors collapsed due to the blast, leaving a smoking abyss at least 40 feet wide where apartments once stood.
Tetyana Lazun’ko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took refuge in the corridor of their top-floor apartment after hearing sirens, warning of an attack. They were saved from the worst of the explosion that left them inside and incredulous.
“There was an explosion. Everything was shaking,” Lazun’ko said. Everything was flying and I was screaming. “
Shards of glass, full door and window frames and other debris covered the exterior floors of the apartment where they had lived since 1974. Lazun’ko wept inconsolably, wondering why his house in a domain with no military infrastructure in sight was being attacked.
“Why are they bombing us? Why?” She.
Oleksii, who sat quietly, leaning on a wooden cane, suffered 3 blows, Lazun’ko said. Breaking his silence, he slowly said: “This is foreign terrorism. You can’t save yourself from that.
In recent weeks, Russia has attacked Zaporizhzhia, which is the capital of a region of the same call that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed last week in violation of foreign law. At least 19 other people were killed in Russian missile movements on apartment buildings in the city. on Thursday.
“Once again, Zaporizhzhia. Once again, cruel attacks on civilians, residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram article.
“Absolute evil. Absolute evil. . . From him who gave this order, to all who fulfilled this order: they will answer. They must. Before the law and the people,” he added.
While Russia targeted Zaporizhzhia before Saturday’s explosion on the Crimean bridge, the attack was a blow to Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine in 2014. No one claimed the duty to damage the bridge.
Putin on Saturday signed a decree strengthening the security of the bridge and electrical infrastructure between Crimea and Russia, and entrusted the effort to Russia’s federal security service, the FSB.
Some Russian lawmakers have called on Putin to call for an “anti-terror operation,” rather than the term “special army operation,” which has downplayed the scale of the fight for the Russians.
Hours after the explosion, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Air Force chief Gen. Sergei Surovikin would now be in command of all Russian troops in Ukraine. a bombing raid that destroyed much of Aleppo.
The 19-kilometer (12-mile) Kerch Bridge over a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is a symbol of Moscow’s claims to Crimea and an important link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed to Ukraine in 2014.
The $3600 million bridge, the longest in Europe, is important for the Russian military’s operations in southern Ukraine. Putin himself presided over the inauguration of the bridge in May 2018.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video copy, said the attack on the bridge did not solve its cause.
“Today was not a bad, sunny day on our state’s territory,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Although it was also hot. “
Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs a long term “without occupiers. All over our territory, especially in Crimea. “
Zelenskyy also said Ukrainian forces have complex or held the line to the east and south, but declared “very, very difficult, very hard fighting” around the town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have claimed recent gains.
Rail and vehicular traffic on the bridge was temporarily suspended. Car traffic resumed Saturday afternoon on one of two routes that remained intact, with alternation in all directions, Russia-backed Crimean chief Sergei Aksyonov said.
Russia’s transport ministry said Sunday on Telegram that passenger traffic between Crimea and the Russian mainland resumed overnight “according to schedule. “
In a separate Telegram post on Sunday, the ministry said car ferries were also operating between Crimea and the mainland, with the first crossing taking position shortly before 2 a. m. local time (2300 GMT).
While Russia seized areas north of Crimea at the start of its invasion of Ukraine and built territory there along the Sea of Azov, Ukraine is launching a counteroffensive to that territory as well as four regions illegally annexed by Putin this month.
Russia has stepped up its moves in the city of Zaporizhzhia since officially absorbing the surrounding domain on September 29.
The regional governor of Zaporizhzhia reported that the death toll had risen to 32 after Russian missiles hit a civilian convoy leaving the city on Sept. 30. In a Telegram article, Oleksandr Starukh said the user died in hospital on Friday.
Part of the Zaporizhzhia region, lately under Russian rule, is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The fighting has continuously endangered the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and the Ukrainian government shut down its last operating reactor last month to avert a radioactive disaster.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U. N. ‘s nuclear watchdog, said Saturday that the Zaporizhzhia plant has since lost its last external force as a result of a new bombing and now relies on emergency diesel generators.
The Crimean peninsula is a destination for Russian tourists and is home to a Russian naval base. A Russian tourism deal estimated that 50,000 tourists were in Crimea on Saturday.