Russian Glide Bombs Kill 15 in Zaporizhzhia Apartment Strike

Russia struck the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia with five glide bombs on Saturday, killing at least 15 people, including three children, President Volodymyr Zelensky and emergency services said, according to the BBC. At least 16 others were injured, and more people were believed to be trapped under rubble hours after the strike.

What the strike hit

The bombs hit residential buildings in the south-eastern city, the BBC reported. Photos and video from the scene showed an apartment block mostly destroyed. Acting Mayor Regina Kharchenko, speaking from the site, told Ukrainian television that "the ground floor was hit, and the floors above just collapsed." More than 80 workers took part in search and rescue operations expected to continue through the day, with rescue teams periodically stopping to listen for sounds from anyone still trapped, according to the BBC.

Kharchenko said Russia had struck at "our very heart" and that "our littlest ones" were among those killed, calling their deaths "awful grief for their families. For the city."

How the death toll compares to recent strikes

Saturday's attack is the latest in a run of strikes the BBC says have produced rising civilian death tolls in Ukraine. On Thursday, at least 33 people were killed when a Russian glide bomb hit two civilian buses in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, the BBC reported. A day earlier, 22 people, including five children, died when a Russian missile struck an apartment block in Pryluky, east of Kyiv. The United Nations says civilian casualties in Ukraine rose 55% in the first eight months of this year, according to the BBC's reporting of UN figures.

Zaporizhzhia itself is a regional center with more than 700,000 residents and sits less than 10 miles from the front line, making it a frequent target of Russian drone and missile strikes, the BBC noted.

What else was hit overnight

Zelensky said 13 other Ukrainian regions were struck overnight in addition to Zaporizhzhia. "Our responses to [these] Russian strikes will come," he wrote, according to the BBC. The BBC said both Russia and Ukraine have escalated attacks on each other's infrastructure in recent months, with Ukraine's most recent strikes hitting data centers owned by the Russian tech company Yandex.

Why Zelensky linked the attack to a US-Russia diesel deal

The strikes landed hours after President Donald Trump announced a deal to import Russian diesel into the United States, the BBC reported. Zelensky has criticized that arrangement, calling it a gift to President Vladimir Putin that amounts to "an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged."

In his statement on the overnight strikes, Zelensky argued that easing economic pressure on Moscow sends the wrong signal. "Russia interprets any easing of pressure as a signal that it can supposedly continue the war," he wrote on X, as quoted by the BBC. "Russia must understand that the war needs to be stopped, and for that, it must feel its losses."

The BBC did not report a Russian government response to Zelensky's remarks or to the Zaporizhzhia strike in the material reviewed.

The toll in numbers

• At least 15 people killed in Saturday's Zaporizhzhia strike, including three children, per Ukrainian emergency services and Zelensky.
• At least 16 people injured, with others still unaccounted for under rubble, the BBC reported.
• Zaporizhzhia's population exceeds 700,000 residents, located less than 10 miles from the front line, according to the BBC.
• UN data cited by the BBC shows civilian casualties in Ukraine rose 55% in the first eight months of 2026.
• Thursday's Kramatorsk bus strike killed at least 33 people; Wednesday's Pryluky missile strike killed 22, including five children, the BBC reported.

Search and rescue operations in Zaporizhzhia were ongoing as of Saturday afternoon, with officials cautioning that the final toll could rise as crews continue clearing the collapsed structure.

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