Ukraine: Russian strikes kill at least 17 following bridge attack

Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine): A Russian missile barrage that crumbled apartment buildings and houses in Ukraine's city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday as Moscow strained to enforce its takeover of illegally annexed territory.

The blasts that collapsed at least one high-rise residential building and blew out the windows of others came from six missiles launched in Russian-occupied areas of the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian air force said.

The region is one of four Russia claimed as its own this month, but the regional capital remains under Ukrainian control. The multiple strikes came after an explosion on Saturday caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia.

The Kerch Bridge attack damaged an important supply route for the Kremlin's faltering war effort in Ukraine and a towering symbol of Russia's power in the region.

Stunned residents watched from behind police tape as emergency crews tried to reach the upper floors of a building that took a direct hit.

The attack collapsed several floors, leaving a smoldering chasm at least 40-feet wide where apartments had stood. Several hours later, the top floors caved in as well. In an adjacent apartment building, the barrage blew windows and doors out of their frames in a radius of hundreds of feet. At least 20 private homes and 50 apartment buildings in all were damaged, and at least 40 people were hospitalised, city council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev said.

Zaporizhzhia resident Mucola Markovich, 76, said he and his wife hid under a blanket when they heard incoming rockets and booms from blasts. There was one explosion, then another one, he said.

Then, in a flash, their fourth-floor apartment was gone, Markovich said, holding back tears.

When it will be rebuilt, I don't know, he said. "I am left without an apartment at the end of my life.

Russian officials did not immediately comment on the strikes. Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's annexation of the Zaporizhzhia region last week, Russia has repeatedly bombarded the city of the same name.

At least 19 people died 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 meanness. 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.

Tetyana Lazunko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took shelter in the hallway of their top floor apartment after first hearing air raid sirens and then an explosion that shook the building and sent their possessions flying.

Lazunko wept inconsolably as the couple surveyed the damage to their home since 1974, wondering why an area with no military infrastructure in sight was targeted.

Why are they bombing us. Why? she said.

While Russia targeted Zaporizhzhia before Saturday's explosion on the Crimea bridge, the attack on the 12-mile-long span was a significant blow to Moscow.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 following a hastily called local vote, a move that drew US and European Union sanctions.

Putin personally opened the USD 3.7 million Kerch Bridge in May 2018 by driving a truck across it in a symbol of Moscow's claims on Crimea.

The bridge, the longest one in Europe, is vital to sustaining Russia's military operations in southern Ukraine.

The Crimean Peninsula is a popular destination for Russian tourists and home to a Russian naval base. A Russian tourist association estimated that 50,000 tourists were in Crimea on Saturday.