Ukraine and Russia Exchange Accusations of Shelling Civilians in Zaporizhzhia

(Reuters) – According to Ukraine’s presidential administration, three civilians were injured in Russian shelling of a village in Zaporizhzhia. Moscow-backed officials claim that Kyiv’s forces shelled a school in the same village.

Fighting has been ongoing in Zaporizhzhia, a frontline region in southern Ukraine, which Russia moved to annex last year but does not fully occupy. The regional capital, Zaporizhzhia city, is still under Kyiv’s control.

On Telegram, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, reported that Russian forces targeted the village of Stepnohirske in the region with rocket launchers, damaging an administrative building and injuring two women and a man.

Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the city council, stated on Telegram that Russia also shelled Zaporizhzhia city, damaging at least 16 buildings.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in parts of Zaporizhzhia controlled by Moscow, claimed that Ukrainian forces destroyed a school in the village of Stulneve and that air defense forces intercepted a drone over Tokmak city.

Reports from both sides could not be independently verified by Reuters. However, both Russia and Ukraine deny deliberately targeting civilians in the 17-month long war waged by Russia.

Russia’s defense ministry announced on Saturday that it had destroyed several Ukrainian weapon depots in the region. Ukraine’s top military command accused Russia of intensively shelling the area to halt Ukraine’s progress.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated his commitment to liberating all Russian-occupied land, emphasizing that no people or settlements should remain under Russian occupation.

“We cannot allow violence and the humiliation of people to continue wherever Russian occupation persists,” Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video address.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Diane Craft)