The rocket attack on the town of Zaporizhzhya in the southern region of the same name has left a number of people under the rubble, the regional governor said. He added that at least five people are missing.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has begun to unravel after a Ukrainian counter-offensive that has seen thousands of square miles of territory recaptured since early September, including dozens of settlements in recent days.
Thousands of Russian troops have withdrawn after the front line crumbled, first in the northeast and, since the beginning of this week, also in the south. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address on Thursday that Kiev’s forces recaptured more than 500 square kilometers (195 square miles) of territory and dozens of settlements in the southern Kherson region in October alone.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts on the battlefield.
In rare but growing public criticism of Russia’s top military officials, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-backed government in the Kherson region, criticized “generals and ministers” in Moscow for failing to understand the problems on the frontline.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian Defense Ministry.
Even among loyalist state television presenters, discontent is beginning to bubble up.
“Please tell me what the genius idea of the General Staff is?” Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most prominent presenters of Russian talk shows, said on his livestream channel.
“Do you think time is on our side? They (the Ukrainians) have greatly increased their amount of weapons… But what have you been doing in that time?”
DEBRIS, SMOKE AND DUST
Footage from the aftermath of Thursday’s rocket attack showed a gaping, rubble-strewn hole where a five-story apartment block once stood next to a wine shop.
Reuters reporters watched as firefighters carried a father and son down a ladder and chatted with an elderly man who was still trapped under the rubble.
Eduard, a 49-year-old man who survived the attack, said he was awakened by a powerful explosion around 5 a.m. “The room filled with smoke and dust. I jumped up to see what had happened,” he said.
Regional Governor Starukh said emergency services had rescued 21 people. He had previously estimated the number of injured at 12, including a three-year-old child.
In an online speech to the European Political Community’s new Security and Energy Cooperation Forum, Zelenskiy accused Russia of purposely attacking the same spot twice in a row.
“In Zaporizhzhya, after the first missile strike today, when people came to pick up the rubble, Russia carried out a second missile attack. Absolute meanness, absolute evil.”
Moscow says it is not deliberately targeting civilians.
In comments to Australia’s Lowy Institute, Zelenskiy said NATO should launch preemptive strikes on Russia to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the comments as “a call to start another world war with unpredictable, monstrous consequences,” according to RIA news agency.
The missile strike in Zaporizhzhya came a day after Putin signed a law to include four partially occupied Ukrainian regions in Russia, including Zaporizhzhya, in Europe’s largest attempted annexation since World War II.
Kiev called the new law the act of a “collective insane asylum”.
Russia went on to annex the regions after holding what it called referendums — votes that were labeled illegal and coercive by Kiev and Western governments.
‘Scorched EARTH’
In the northeast region of Kharkiv, a Ukrainian general said on Thursday that Kiev’s armed forces have moved to about 55 km in the past two weeks.
In the eastern region of Donetsk, the Ukrainian General Staff said Russian troops had blown up a dam near the city of Sloviansk as they retreated, flooding the nearby city of Raihorodok. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Russian troops remained entrenched around the nearby battered city of Bakhmut.
Separately, Sweden’s security service said an underwater crime scene investigation of the energy pipelines connecting Russia and Germany through the Bastic Sea has found evidence of explosions and reinforced suspicions of sabotage.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were damaged early last week. Europe, which used to depend on Russia for about 40% of its gas, is facing an energy crisis.
Moscow has sought to shift blame for the pipeline damage to the West, suggesting that the United States would benefit from Russia not being able to transport gas to Europe. Washington has denied any involvement.