Seven dead in Russian missile attack on Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia

KIEV, Ukraine — A Russian missile attack on the city of Vilnius in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region killed at least seven people and seriously injured another 11, including three children, authorities reported Saturday evening.

The number of victims could rise further, President Volodymyr Selensky posted on X.

Zaporizhia Governor Ivan Fodorev said a “critical infrastructure facility” and several apartment blocks had been damaged.

Ukrainian cities and villages are attacked every day, Zelensky said. “We will destroy the terrorists where they are, eliminate Russian launch pads, attack them with long-range weapons and increase the number of modern air defense systems in Ukraine,” he added.

According to Russian authorities, five people were previously killed in a drone attack in the Kursk region near the border with Ukraine.

The governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said two small children were among the dead and blamed Ukraine for the attack.

According to Smirnov, a residential building in the village of Gorodishche was hit in the attack. Two seriously injured people were taken to hospital.

The Kursk region, like other Russian territories along the border with Ukraine, such as Bryansk, Belgorod and Rostov, has been the target of repeated Ukrainian attacks as the country battles the ongoing, large-scale Russian invasion.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Saturday morning that six attacking drones had been shot down in a total of four Russian regions during the night to Sunday.

The information provided by the Russian authorities cannot be independently verified by dpa.

According to Ukraine, the attacks on Russian territory are directed against Russian military positions.

However, civilians are also repeatedly affected by attacks – for example when debris from shot down drones falls to the ground.

However, the consequences on the Russian side of the border are relatively minor compared to the high number of casualties and the enormous destruction caused by the ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Zelensky welcomed the return of Ukrainian prisoners from Russia, including Nariman Dzhelyal, a Crimean Tatar leader.

“This week, ten civilians and 90 soldiers were released,” Zelensky said in a video message. This means that 3,310 prisoners have been released from Russian prisons to Ukraine, he said.

“We must find all our people and bring them back to Ukraine, every one of them in prison or deported – adults and children, soldiers and civilians,” he said.

Dzhelyal was one of the ten civilians who returned on Friday. Zelenskyy held brief talks with the Tatar leader on Saturday. They last met in 2021.

Shortly after this meeting and before the Russian invasion in February 2022, Jelyal was arrested in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. He was subsequently sentenced to 17 years in prison after being found guilty of blowing up a gas pipeline.

Among those released were two priests of the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine.

There is no information on whether the Ukrainians released Russian prisoners in return.

The last prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow a few days ago also involved a metropolitan of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who was honored with an award by Patriarch Kirill upon his arrival in Moscow.