The explosions in the city, which remains under Ukrainian control but lies in territory Moscow claims as its own, blew out windows in nearby buildings and left at least one apartment building partially collapsed.
The multiple strikes came after an explosion caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with Russia on Saturday. The Kerch Bridge attack destroyed an important supply route for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine, an artery that is also a towering symbol of Russia’s power in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the attack a “terrorist act” organized by Ukrainian special services.
“There is no doubt that this was a terrorist act aimed at destroying critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” Putin said during a meeting with the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. “And the authors, perpetrators and those who ordered it are the special services of Ukraine.”
Bastrykin said that Ukrainian special services and citizens of Russia and other countries were involved in the attack. He said a criminal investigation into terrorism has been launched.
“We have already determined the route of the truck,” he said, saying it was in Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar, a region in southern Russia.
In Kyiv, presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak called Putin’s accusation “too cynical even for Russia.”
“Putin accuses Ukraine of terrorism?” he said. “Not even 24 hours have passed since Russian planes fired 12 rockets into a residential area of Zaporizhia, killing 13 people and injuring more than 50. No, there is only one state terrorist and the whole world knows who he is.”
Podolyak referred to rocket attacks in the city of Zaporizhzhia overnight that destroyed part of a large apartment building. The six missiles were fired from Russian-held areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian air force said.
The bombing of the bridge came a day after Putin turned 70, dealing a humiliating blow that one military analyst called a punch in the face for Putin on his birthday, CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata reports.
Rockets that hit Zaporizhia overnight damaged at least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings, city council secretary Anatoly Kurtev said. At least 40 people were hospitalized, Kurtev said on Telegram.
The Ukrainian military confirmed the attack, saying there were dozens of casualties.
Rescuers work in a residential area heavily damaged by a Russian missile attack, amid Russia’s offensive on Ukraine, in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, October 9, 2022. STRINGER/REUTERS
Residents gathered behind police tape next to a building where multiple floors collapsed in the blast, leaving a scorching chasm at least 40 feet wide where apartments once stood.
Tetyana Lazun’ko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took refuge in the hallway of their top-floor apartment after hearing sirens warning of an attack. They were spared the worst of the explosion which left them in fear and disbelief.
“There was an explosion. Everything was shaking,” Lazun’ko said. “Everything was flying and I was screaming.”
Shards of glass, entire window and door frames and other debris covered the outer floors of the apartment where they had lived since 1974. Lazunko wept inconsolably, wondering why their home in an area with no military infrastructure in sight had been targeted.
“Why are they bombing us. Why?” he said.
Oleksii, who was sitting quietly leaning on a wooden cane, suffered three strokes, Lazun’ko said. Breaking his silence, he said slowly, “This is international terrorism. You can’t save yourself from her.”
In recent weeks, Russia has repeatedly hit Zaporizhia, which is the capital of the region of the same name that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed in violation of international law last week. At least 19 people were killed in Russian missile strikes on apartment buildings in the city on Thursday.
“Again, Zaporizhzhia. Again, merciless attacks on civilians, targeting residential buildings, in the middle of the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a Telegram post.
“Absolute evil. Absolute evil… From the one who gave this order, to everyone who carried out this order: they will answer. They must. Before the law and the people,” he added.
While Russia had targeted Zaporizhia before Saturday’s explosion on the Crimean bridge, the attack was a major blow to Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. No one has claimed responsibility for the disaster. of the bridge.
Putin signed a decree late Saturday beefing up security measures for the bridge and energy infrastructure between Crimea and Russia and putting Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, in charge of the effort.
Some Russian lawmakers called on Putin to declare an “anti-terrorist operation,” instead of the term “special military operation” that downplayed the scope of the battle to ordinary Russians.
Hours after the blast, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Air Force Chief General Sergei Surovykin would now command all Russian troops in Ukraine. Surovikin, who over the summer was put in charge of troops in southern Ukraine, had led Russian forces in Syria and was accused of overseeing a bombardment that destroyed much of Aleppo.
The 19km-long Kerch Bridge, in a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, is a symbol of Moscow’s claims to Crimea and an essential link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The $3.6 billion bridge, Europe’s largest, is vital to sustaining Russia’s military operations in southern Ukraine. Putin himself presided over the opening of the bridge in May 2018.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video address, indirectly acknowledged the attack on the bridge but did not address its cause.
“Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny across our state,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was cloudy in the Crimea. Although it was also hot.”
Zelensky said Ukraine wants a future “without conquerors. All over our territory, especially in Crimea.”
Zelensky also said Ukrainian forces advanced or held the line in the east and south, but acknowledged “very, very tough, very tough fighting” around the town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have claimed recent gains .
Train and car traffic over the bridge was temporarily suspended. Car traffic resumed Saturday afternoon on one of the two links that remained intact, with flow alternating in each direction, Russia-backed Crimean leader Sergei Aksionov said.
The Russian Transport Ministry announced on Telegram on Sunday that passenger train traffic between Crimea and the Russian mainland had resumed overnight “according to schedule”.
In a separate Telegram post on Sunday, the ministry said ferries were also working between Crimea and the mainland, with the first crossing taking place just before 2am local time (11pm GMT).
While Russia seized territory north of Crimea early in its invasion of Ukraine and built a land corridor to it along the Sea of Azov, Ukraine is pushing a counteroffensive to retake that territory as well as four territories illegally annexed by Putin this month .
Russia has stepped up its strikes on the city of Zaporizhzhia since it officially absorbed the surrounding area on September 29.
Zaporizhzhia’s regional governor said the death toll had risen to 32 after Russia’s missile attack on a civilian convoy leaving the city on September 30. In a Telegram post, Oleksandr Starukh said one more person died in hospital on Friday.
A part of the Zaporizhzhia region under Russian control is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The fighting has repeatedly endangered the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and Ukrainian authorities shut down its last operating reactor last month to prevent a radioactive disaster.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Saturday that the Zaporizhzhia plant has since lost its last remaining external power source as a result of renewed bombing and is now relying on emergency diesel generators.
The Crimean peninsula is a popular destination for Russian tourists and home to a Russian naval base. Russian tourism association estimated that 50,000 tourists were in Crimea on Saturday.
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