At least seven Russian missile strikes rocked the city of Zaporizhzhia Thursday, as Moscow looks to gain control over “annexed” regions as Ukrainian forces continue to advance.
Residential buildings were hit in the regional capital killing at least one and trapping at least five in the rubble, including a 3-year-old.
“Preliminary data on victims of the enemy attack. One woman was killed. There are at least five people under the rubble of houses,” Head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Starukh, said on Telegram.
Starukh originally said two people had been killed but later confirmed that one of the injured victims had been saved after receiving medical attention.
The strikes came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy said three more towns located in the northern part of the Kherson region – in southern Ukraine – had been “liberated.”
“There will be more,” he said in an overnight address referring to Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south.
The U.K. defense ministry said in its daily intelligence update Thursday that Ukrainian units had pushed the front line forwards by another 12 miles along the east bank of the Inhulets and west bank of the Dnipro.
However, the ministry noted they had “not yet threaten[ed] the main Russian defensive positions” in Kherson.
“Russia has committed the majority of its severely undermanned airborne forces, the VDV, to the defense of Kherson,” U.K. defense officials said. “Therefore, Russia currently has few additional, high quality rapidly deployable forces available to stabilize the front: it likely aims to deploy mobilized reservists to the sector.”
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Ukrainian troops are also advancing by pushing south, out of the northern Kharkiv region, which it has largely retaken from Russian occupying forces.
They have advanced east into Luhansk and Donetsk.
Zaporizhizhia remains a highly contested region where fighting continues, and Fox News Digital could not immediately confirm whether any advances had been made in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially claimed the four regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia as Russian on Wednesday, despite continuous reports of retreat by Moscow’s troops.
When asked by reporters if there was a contradiction between Putin’s rhetoric on seizing the four regions and the reality on the ground a Kremlin spokesperson said, “There is no contradiction whatsoever.”
“They will be with Russia forever, and they will be returned,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.
Mobilized forces are expected to reinforce Russia’s efforts in eastern Ukraine, though they are also believed to be under-armed and under-trained.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
