Moment woman is pulled alive from rubble of residential building in Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia

A Russian rocket attack slammed into apartment buildings and other targets in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhya overnight, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens, officials said.

Shocking images circulated on social media by Ukrainian officials this morning showed rescuers pulling an elderly woman from the rubble after the attack reduced a high-rise residential building to rubble and damaged neighboring buildings.

In an earlier clip, rescuers and abandoned residents saw their way over the mounds of twisted metal and broken rocks as they searched for survivors and tried to save what little remained of the devastation.

City Council secretary Anatoly Kurtev said at least 20 private houses and 50 apartment buildings were damaged by the explosions, in addition to the high-rise buildings that were razed.

The Ukrainian army also confirmed the attack and said there were dozens of casualties.

The multiple attacks came after an explosion on Saturday morning caused the partial collapse of a bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to Russia, damaging a key supply artery for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine and a towering symbol of the Russian Federation. power in the region was affected.

Russian President Putin had previously warned that any attack on Crimea’s bridges would hasten “doomsday,” and several Russian officials called for retaliation after the blast.

Russia has repeatedly hit Zaporizhzhya in recent weeks, which is in the Ukrainian-controlled part of a region annexed by Putin last week in violation of international law.

At least 19 people were killed on Thursday in Russian rocket attacks on apartment buildings in the southern city, just 130 kilometers from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

“Again, Zaporizhzhya. Again merciless attacks on civilians targeting residential buildings in the middle of the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in a Telegram message.

‘Absolutely mean. Absolutely evil. … From the one who gave this order, to all who carried out this order: they will answer. They have to. For the law and the people,” he added.

Residents of a building damaged overnight gathered behind police tape and watched the smoldering remains of several floors collapsed from the blast, creating a chasm at least 40 feet wide where apartments once stood.

Rescue workers tried to reach the upper floors.

While Russia attacked Zaporizhzhya several times before Saturday’s explosion on the Crimean bridge, last night’s rocket attack will likely be seen as a retaliation, as it came just hours after damage was done to the symbol of Russian power on the annexed peninsula. , took place.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for damaging the bridge.

Some Russian lawmakers called for Putin to declare a “counter-terrorism operation,” rather than the term “special military operation,” which has toned down the scope of the battle to ordinary Russians.

Hours after the bridge explosion, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its Air Force commander, General Sergei Surovikin, would now command all Russian forces in Ukraine.

Gene. Surovikin, who was in charge of troops in southern Ukraine this summer, had led Russian forces in Syria and was accused of overseeing a bombing campaign that devastated much of Aleppo.

The 12-mile Kerch Bridge, on a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Azov, is a symbol of Moscow’s claims to Crimea and an essential link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Train and car traffic over the bridge was temporarily halted, but car traffic resumed on one of the two intact connections on Saturday afternoon and train traffic slowly started again last night.

Zelensky indirectly acknowledged the attack on the bridge in a video speech yesterday, but did not elaborate on its cause.

“Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny in the territory of our state,” he said.

‘Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Even if it was hot.’

He also said Ukrainian forces were advancing or holding the line to the east and south, but acknowledged “very, very difficult, very tough fighting” around the town of Bakhmut in the eastern region of Donetsk, where Russian forces have claimed recent gains.

Russia has stepped up its attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhya since formally absorbing the surrounding region on September 29.

Zaporizhzhya’s regional governor said the death toll had risen to 32 after Russia’s rocket attack on a civilian convoy that left the city on September 30.

In a Telegram post, Oleksandr Starukh said another person died in hospital on Friday.

In a part of the Zaporizhzhya region that is currently under Russian control, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located.

Fighting has repeatedly endangered the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and Ukrainian authorities closed the last working reactor last month to prevent a radiation disaster.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said on Saturday that the Zaporizhzhya plant has since lost its last remaining external energy source due to renewed shelling and now relies on emergency diesel generators.

The Crimean Peninsula is a popular destination for Russian tourists and home to a Russian naval base.

A Russian tourist organization estimated that there were 50,000 tourists in Crimea on Saturday.