Updated: 9:30am (AEDT)
Rzhyshchiv, Ukraine
Reuters
Russian air strikes on Ukrainian cities on Wednesday killed at least nine people in attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said showed Moscow was not interested in peace.
In a series of early-morning drone strikes, at least eight people were killed and seven were injured when two dormitories and a college were hit in Rzhyshchiv, 64 kilometres south of the capital Kyiv, emergency services said on Facebook.
Rescuers work at a site of building heavily damaged by a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Rzhyshchiv, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, on 22nd March, 2023. PICTURE: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters
One person was rescued from the site and four people were believed trapped under rubble. Rescue operations were continuing on Wednesday night.
The attack left a gaping hole in the top floor of a five-storey dormitory. A pile of rubble marked where part of another building had stood, a Reuters witness said.
Regional police chief Andrii Nebytov said an ambulance driver who went to the scene was among the dead.
Hours later, two residential buildings were damaged in a missile strike on the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia. One person was killed and 33 taken to hospital, officials said.
The Ukrainian military said it knocked out 16 of 21 Iranian-made Shahed drones fired by Russia.
“Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes,” Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter in an apparent reference to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia, which ended on Wednesday.
Zelenskiy described the attack on Zaporizhzhia an act of “bestial savagery”.
Russia invaded its neighbour Ukraine 13 months ago and has carried out waves of air attacks. Russia says it is targeting infrastructure as part of what it calls a “special military operation” to remove what it says is a threat to its own security. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to grab territory.
“The majority of people [at the dormitories] were saved because they…were in bomb shelters,” police chief Nebytov said.
Viktoria, a town resident, said she heard the first explosion at 2 am
“I woke up from that first explosion and went outside, where I heard another Shahed. It flew very low,” she said. “And then there was another explosion, from the first explosion there had already been a fire … And a third time something flew by.”
Smoke billows from a building heavily damaged by a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Rzhyshchiv, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, on 22nd March, 2023. PICTURE: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters
A Rzhyshchiv College employee, who gave her name as Svitlana, said the students clearly knew what to do after the explosions occurred.
“Well, the children called us, we came here and took them to our homes…Then, we sent them home,” she said. “The children were in the shelter, they did everything right.”
Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said Russia probably carried out the Zaporizhzhia attack with high-speed rockets fired from the Tornado-S multiple rocket launch system.
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In other news from Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Ukrainian troops on Wednesday near the frontline city of Bakhmut, and handed out medals to soldiers he said were heroically defending their country’s sovereignty.
Ukrainian forces have held out for about eight months in Bakhmut, despite taking heavy casualties in one of the bloodiest battles since Russia’s full-scale invasion 13 months ago.
Video footage posted on social media showed Zelenskiy, dressed in a dark sweatshirt and military khaki trousers, handing out awards to exhausted-looking soldiers in combat gear in what appeared to be a large warehouse.
“I am honoured to be here today to give awards to our heroes. To shake hands and thank them for protecting the sovereignty of our country,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app under the video footage.
“Your fate is so difficult, yet so historic. To defend our land and to return everything to Ukraine for our children,” he said. “I bow low before all the heroes, your close comrades you have lost in the east, and in general throughout this war.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy poses for a picture with Ukrainian service members at a position near a frontline, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine on 22nd March, 2023. PICTURE: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters
Zelenskiy has portrayed “Fortress Bakhmut” as a symbol of defiance which is bleeding the Russian military dry.
Reminiscent of World War I, the battle for Bakhmut has been fought from trenches with relentless artillery and rocket strikes across a heavily mined battlefield described as a “meat grinder” by commanders on both sides.
Zelenskiy has visited frontline troops several times during the war. Wednesday’s visit followed days after Russian President Vladimir Putin went to the city of Mariupol – his first to any Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region since the war began and the closest he has been to front lines.
A separate video on Wednesday showed Zelenskiy visiting wounded soldiers undergoing treatment. He shook the wounded soldiers’ hands, thanked them for their service and presented some of them with medals.
– Additional reporting DAN PELESCHUK, MAX HUNDER and TIMOTHY HERITAGE
