Russian strikes kill seven, wound dozens in Ukraine

Russian strikes on Saturday killed at least seven people and wounded almost 60 across Ukraine, Kyiv said, as Moscow steps up attacks ahead of another winter of war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for an adequate response from allies as Russia intensified attacks in a fifth year of war.

US envoys visited both Moscow and Kyiv last week, but announced no breakthrough in talks to end fighting.

A local resident stands outside a damaged multistory residential building, where 17 people were injured, following aerial attacks that targeted Odesa, Ukraine, on Saturday.

Photo: AFP

Ukrainian officials said two people were killed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and another two in the central Zhytomyr region.

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal said two others were also killed by a missile strike on its plant in the central city of Kryvyi Rig.

“We emphasize our plant is a civilian facility in the mining and metallurgical industry, and we strongly condemn these insidious enemy attacks,” the company said, reporting damage at its production facilities.

The two victims in the Zhytomyr region were killed when Russia struck a “grocery store” in the city of Zvyagel, about 230km west of Kyiv, regional leader Vitaliy Bunechko said.

He said two petrol stations were also hit in Korosten, in the same region further north toward the Belarus border, but there were no casualties.

Russia had increased strikes on petrol stations in the past few days in Kyiv and on motorways, Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky said.

A Russian strike on an apartment building in Odesa also wounded 37 people, where rescue teams were searching for two missing people, Zelenskiy said, adding that another 11 were wounded in Chornomorsk, in the Odesa region.

Others were wounded in the Kryvyi Rig and the Kyiv regions, Zelensky said.

He called on allies to call out Russia’s intensifying campaign, with fears of what another winter of war would look like.

“When the Russians so blatantly turn ordinary people into targets of their terrorist attacks, it is frustrating that the response from the world’s strongest powers does not match the level of Russia’s escalation,” Zelensky said.