Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘utter disregard’ after airstrike on Zaporizhzhia apartment block

Russia launched a sweeping attack across Ukraine overnight on Saturday, with one person killed and 24 injured, including three children, when a five-storey residential building was hit in Zaporizhzhia. The regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, said the attack on Zaporizhzhia cut power to 25,000 residents.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on X “Russians launched nearly 540 drones, 8 ballistic missiles, and 37 other types of missiles against civilian life”. He said 14 regions were targeted, including Kyiv and Chernivtsi in the south-west of the country bordering Romania.

The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 510 of 537 drones and 38 of 45 missiles launched by Russia in the overnight attack. It recorded five missile and 24 drone hits at seven locations, according to its statement on Telegram. Russia confirmed it had launched the attacks, saying they were against “military” targets.

The cities of Dnipro and Pavlograd in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk also came under attack early on Saturday, causing fires, the regional governor, Sergiy Lysak, wrote on Telegram, warning residents to take cover.

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of using “the time meant for preparing a leaders-level meeting to organise new massive attacks” and called for “tougher” banking and energy sanctions on Russia. He said Russia’s latest attack had shown “its utter disregard for words”.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she had asked the bloc’s governments to submit proposals next week for another package of sanctions against Russia after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he expected that Russia would only stop its war against Ukraine once it could no longer wage it for economic and military reasons, given that diplomatic efforts in recent weeks had failed. “All efforts of the past weeks have been answered with an even more aggressive approach by this regime in Moscow against the population in Ukraine,” Merz said at a regional event in North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday. “This will also not stop until we ensure together that Russia, at least for economic reasons, and perhaps also for military reasons can no longer continue this war.”

The chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said on Saturday that Russian forces were waging non-stop offensives along the entire frontline in Ukraine and have the “strategic initiative”. Since March, Russia has captured more than 3,500 sq km of territory in Ukraine and taken control of 149 villages, Gerasimov added. “At present, the strategic initiative lies entirely with Russian forces,” he asserted.

Russian troops have taken control of the village of Komyshuvakha in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian defence ministry said, adding that its forces had successfully carried out strikes with high-precision weapons on Ukrainian missile and aviation enterprises, as well as military airfields in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military said that it had struck Russian oil refineries in Krasnodar and Syzran overnight. The military recorded multiple explosions and a fire at the Krasnodar oil refinery in Russia’s south and said there was also a fire in the Syzran oil refinery area in Samara region. Russian authorities in Krasnodar said falling drone debris damaged one of the refinery’s units.

Twenty Ukrainian drones, including 18 over Russian-annexed Crimea, were shot down early on Saturday morning, the Russian defence ministry said. The other two drones were shot down over Russia’s western Smolensk region.

Andriy Parubiy, a Ukrainian politician who previously served as the parliament speaker, was shot dead in western city of Lviv on Saturday. Prosecutors have opened a murder investigation and said police were still searching for the shooter but have not mentioned possible motives at this stage.

Zelenskyy said the shooting was “carefully planned” and that “all necessary forces and means” would be used in the investigation. The foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, described Parubiy as “a patriot and statesman” who “rightfully belongs in the history books”, while the prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, called for a prompt investigation of the murder, calling it “a profound loss” for the country.