One person has been killed and at least 24 wounded in a drone and missile attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional officials said while blaming Russia for the attack.
More than 20,000 residents were also left without power and 17,000 without heating as a result of the overnight attack, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov, who said an energy facility had been destroyed.
He added that a 47-year-old man was killed in the attack and at least four emergency workers, as well as a two-month-old baby, were among those injured.
“Residential buildings… were damaged by a strike. The blast wave broke out windows and damaged a roof,” Fedorov said on Telegram.
Later, Ukraine’s military said it shot down 57 out of 92 drones launched by Russian forces’ overnight attack, adding that another 27 drones had been “locationally lost” and did not cause any damage.
Thursday’s deadly strike was the latest in an intensifying exchange in southern Ukraine, as both Moscow and Kyiv vie for advantage in the early days of US President Donald Trump’s administration.
On Wednesday, Trump stepped up the pressure on Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the nearly three-year-old war.
Prior to his inauguration on Monday, Trump had pledged to end the Ukraine war immediately upon taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make concessions to Russia, which invaded in February 2022.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Kyiv, said Zaporizhzhia has come under intense fire in the last 24 hours, with an estimated 361 attacks taking place, including four ballistic missiles.
“The real concern now are the people who are without electricity. This is the middle of winter,” Khan said.
Earlier, Russia-installed officials in the partly occupied Zaporizhzhia region said at least four Ukrainian drones attacked Enerhodar, a city whose residents mostly serve in the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Two electricity substations near Enerhodar were reportedly hit. There were no casualties and no details on damage were provided.
Russia had seized the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, in the early days of the war and each side has since accused the other of staging periodic attacks on the facility.
“This is a terrorist act,” Russia-installed Acting Mayor Maksim Pukha told Russia’s RIA news agency, saying civil infrastructure and residential areas had been hit. “Peaceful residents should in no way be targets of such an attack.”
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