For two weeks now, Russian missiles have been falling unfailingly on Zaporizhia at night. On Wednesday October 12, residents were awakened around midnight by seven explosions. The day before, twelve S-300 type missiles, fired at dawn, caused the death of a man, and the destruction of a school and a nursery, according to the chief of the police of the region, Artem Kysko . Monday morning, eight missiles targeted the city center, killing nine and wounding seven.
The attacks in recent weeks have been particularly deadly. According to Artem Kysko, the strikes on the southern city became more and more regular from August. “There was not a single military objective near the strikes,” he assures, while denouncing “a targeted action by the Russian Federation aimed at inflicting and demoralizing, and, in this way, having an impact on the population”.
The resurgence of bombardments at the end of September coincides with the annexation claimed by the Kremlin of the entirety of the province of Zaporizhia, of which the city of the same name is the capital, at the same time as those of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson, after referendums organized in these partially occupied territories, battle zones. Polls qualified by kyiv and its Western allies as “masquerades”.
The list of attacks is endless. On September 30, around the city, 31 people died in a bombardment on a column of cars heading towards the occupied part of the oblast, to the south. At dawn on October 6, seven other missiles fell on buildings in the center, causing the death of 17 people. On the night of the following Sunday, homes were hit and 12 people were killed. Each time, these attacks leave dozens of people injured.
The raided shelters
On October 10, a few hours after the bombing that hit the city center, at the same time as many cities on Ukrainian territory, Polina Kovalyova and two friends chat a few meters from the gutted building, on the empty terrace of a cafe . “That’s Russian terrorism!” » loose the young woman of 21 years. She stares into the huge pile of debris and recounts the explosions, in the middle of the night, the adrenaline rush, the blood pounding in her temples: “There was fire in two buildings and people screaming for help. »
Since the shootings of October 6, many inhabitants have left, continues Polina Kovalyova, who explains that the shelters are now taken by storm. Sunday, “it was panic, with huge traffic jams, she says. I wanted to take train tickets to go to kyiv but there was no more space…”
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