Russia Launches 12 Missiles At Zaporizhzhia Ukraine: Dozens Of Civilians Are Killed, Others Are Injured

Russia's attack on Zaporizhia. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - A Russian missile attack on Sunday hit an apartment block and other residential buildings in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 13 people and wounding 89 others, Ukrainian officials said.

The pre-dawn attack was the second attack on the city in three days.

In the attack on Zaporizhzhia, Russian aircraft launched at least 12 missiles, destroying part of a nine-story apartment block, leveling five other residential buildings and damaging many more, Oleksandr Starukh, the governor of the region, said on state television.

Emergency workers and firefighters circled the nine-story building and dug up survivors and victims in the smoldering rubble of the massive center section that had collapsed.

The explosion shattered cars and left metal window frames, balconies and air conditioners hanging from the front of the building riddled with shrapnel.

Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia. (Wikimedia Commons/National Police of Ukraine)

Sixty of the injured were hospitalized, Ukrainian officials said. Among the victims, including 11 children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack as an absolute crime by people he called barbarians and terrorists, vowing those responsible would be brought to justice.

"Zaporizhzhia again. Merciless attack on peaceful people again. In residential buildings, right in the middle of the night," Zelensky wrote on Telegram about Sunday's attack, citing Al Jazeera.

"Absolute cruelty. Absolute evil. Wild people and terrorists. From the one who gave this order to all those who fulfill this order. They will bear responsibility. Of course. Before the law and before humans," President Zelensky stressed.

The city of Zaporizhzhia has been the target of attacks in recent weeks, with 19 people killed on Thursday last week.

Most of the Zaporizhzhia area, including Europe's largest nuclear power plant in the city, has been under Russian control since the early days of the Russian invasion in February. However, the capital of the region, the city of Zaporizhzhia, remains under Ukrainian control.