A devastating Russian missile attack on residential areas of Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia has left at least 20 people dead — four of them children — and sparked sharp criticism from Ukrainian leadership over a recent U.S. decision to ease sanctions on Russian diesel imports. The assault, carried out with five guided glide bombs on Saturday morning, left at least 32 people injured, with dozens more still unaccounted for and feared trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed multi-story apartment building.
Local acting mayor Regina Harchenko described the scene of the attack in statements to Ukrainian media, noting that the bombing had impacted the building’s ground floor, triggering a progressive collapse of all upper floors. More than 80 emergency responders have been deployed to the site for round-the-clock search and rescue operations, which are expected to continue through the day. Rescuers have periodically paused their work to listen for any signs of life from survivors trapped under concrete and debris. Harchenko called the attack a strike on the “very heart” of Zaporizhzhia, emphasizing that the killing of children represents a devastating, unforgivable grief for both the victims’ families and the entire community.
Zaporizhzhia, a major regional hub home to more than 700,000 residents, sits less than 16 kilometers from the ongoing frontline of Russia’s full-scale invasion, making it a frequent target of Russian missile and drone strikes. In the wake of Saturday’s attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky directly linked the assault to an agreement announced the previous evening by former U.S. President Donald Trump that relaxed sanctions allowing for renewed imports of Russian diesel. Zelensky argued that the attack demonstrated that Russia interprets any easing of international pressure as a green light to continue its invasion. He called the sanctions relief a direct gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that 13 other Ukrainian regions had also come under Russian attack overnight.
In a social media post Saturday, Zelensky stressed that Russia has consistently chosen war, and will only consider ending the conflict when it sees that its ability to sustain the invasion is dwindling. “Unfortunately, the signals Russia received yesterday were entirely different — signals suggesting that it could simply keep attacking. And this needs to be corrected,” he wrote. Political analysts have framed Trump’s decision to ease diesel sanctions as a move to calm domestic U.S. voter anxiety over sky-high fuel prices ahead of critical midterm elections.
Saturday’s attack on Zaporizhzhia is part of a sharp upward trend in civilian casualties across Ukraine this year. The United Nations reports that civilian deaths jumped by 55% in the first eight months of 2024 alone. Just two days before the Zaporizhzhia strike, a Russian glide bomb attack on civilian buses in the eastern Donetsk city of Kramatorsk left 33 people dead. The day before that, 22 people, including five children, were killed when a Russian missile struck an apartment building in Pryluky, a town east of Kyiv.
As winter approaches, Russia has also ramped up deliberate strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a tactic it has deployed in previous years to break civilian morale. Kyiv has repeatedly accused Moscow of intentionally targeting civilian population centers, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. For its part, Ukraine has responded by escalating strikes on key Russian infrastructure deep inside Russian territory, targeting oil refineries, export terminals, and even digital infrastructure owned by Russian tech giant Yandex, which has been left struggling to maintain core services. Ukrainian officials say these strikes are intended to cut off critical revenue streams that fund Russia’s war effort.
As search and rescue operations continue in Zaporizhzhia, the international community has once again been called on to reevaluate the impact of concessions to Russia, with Ukrainian leaders warning that any softening of pressure will only lead to more civilian deaths and a prolonged war.