Russia’s Strike on Ukraine Kills 20, Including Three Children

Zaporizhzhia woke to devastation after Russian air strikes tore into residential neighbourhoods, leaving at least 20 people dead, including three children, regional authorities said.

Ukraine’s national police said Russia hit the southeastern city early this morning with “five guided aerial bombs”, striking two residential buildings.

The bombardment came one day after Ukrainian and European officials met in Miami as part of a fresh diplomatic effort to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“The toll from the air strikes on Zaporizhzhia continues to rise. At present, 11 civilians have been killed. Among them are three children,” said Mykhailo Semikin, head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration.

He said rescuers were still searching for people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble.

Rescuers pull residents out from the rubble following a Russian attack that struck a five-storey residential building in Zaporizhzhia

An AFP correspondent at the site reported seeing Ukrainian emergency crews hauling survivors from collapsed debris.

“We saw people under the rubble – a woman, her husband and a child,” volunteer rescuer Daniil Pishkin said.

He said two people were pulled from the wreckage but added that “unfortunately there was a little girl who died”.

One resident of a hit building, who gave her name as Iryna, 69, said an air raid alert gave her only moments to react.

Rescuers free trapped family in Zaporizhzhia after Russian strikes

She said two of her neighbours were killed.

“They were 75 years old. They were simply thrown out there, onto the street. They didn’t make it to the hospital,” she told AFP.

The Zaporizhzhia region sits just a few dozen kilometres from the front line, and the regional capital — also called Zaporizhzhia — has repeatedly come under fire.

Rescue teams at the site of a Russian strike on a building in Zaporizhzhia

In recent months, Russia has stepped up attacks across Ukraine, pushing civilian casualty numbers higher.

Efforts led by the United States to broker an end to the war — now more than four years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — have so far produced no breakthrough.

Russia and Ukraine continue to trade long-range aerial attacks while their forces remain largely deadlocked along the front line, more than four and a half years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is struggling to blunt intensifying Russian bombardments that have killed more than 58 people in the past four days.

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The latest strikes follow talks in Miami yesterday involving US, Ukrainian and European officials aimed at reviving diplomacy to end the conflict.

US envoy Steve Witkoff wrote on X after the meeting that “constructive discussions” explored “potential avenues to de-escalate and conclude the war with Russia ahead of winter and advance efforts toward a durable and lasting peace.”

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Mr Witkoff said participants included “the E3, the European Commission, Ukraine and NATO.”

He said the agenda ranged from energy resilience and grain exports to security guarantees and “longer-term arrangements for Ukraine’s and Europe’s security to prevent future conflict,”.

Mr Witkoff added that a “productive” exchange also covered support for Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and economic prosperity, including EU accession.”

He did not indicate whether the parties would meet today, as had originally been planned.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Thursday that the war had reached a potentially explosive impasse, saying the failure to secure a negotiated settlement was heightening the risk of further escalation.

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