By Serhiy Chalyi
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) -A Russian missile slammed into a residential building in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early on Wednesday, killing at least two civilians and wounding five, Ukrainian officials said.
A 31-year-old woman was also killed and four people were hurt in a separate attack in which eight private homes were destroyed in Obukhivka in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said eight apartments had been destroyed in the strike on Zaporizhzhia and rescuers were searching for any survivors in the rubble. His office said three people were missing after the attack.
“Overnight, Russian terrorists attacked Zaporizhzhia with missiles, striking an ordinary five-storey residential building,” Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app beside a photo of the building with a gaping hole in the middle, its entrance destroyed, windows smashed and debris scattered around.
“The evil state continues to use terror and wage war on civilians. Russian terror must be defeated.”
Reuters television footage showed fire brigades working near the damaged house and empty buses stopping nearby.
A Moscow-installed official in part of the Zaporizhzhia region that has been controlled by Russia since soon after last year’s invasion blamed the strikes on Ukrainian forces. Moscow did not immediately comment but denies deliberately targeting civilians.
Yuriy Malashko, the regional governor, said six missiles had hit the industrial city. He also reported seven drone attacks on nearby villages and Russian artillery fire on settlements near the front line.
Malashko said 18 settlements had been shelled in the region over the past 24 hours, and Ukrainian regional authorities received at least 33 reports of damage.
Russia has continued frequent air strikes across Ukraine as Kyiv presses on with a counteroffensive in the south and east that has made only gradual progress.
(Additional reporting by Olena Harmash and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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