Russian aircraft released eight powerful glide bombs over residential districts of Zaporizhzhia within 90 minutes on Sunday evening, killing one person and wounding dozens, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov. The attack damaged 22 apartment buildings across four districts of the southern Ukrainian city, which remains under Kyiv's control despite Moscow's occupation of other parts of the region.
Fedorov said a 71-year-old woman was killed and 31 people were injured, including a 16-year-old girl. Emergency crews were still searching through rubble on Monday morning. The bombs, Soviet-era munitions fitted with guidance kits, can carry up to 3,000 kilograms of explosives and leave craters several metres deep. Ukraine has no effective defence against them, and they have become a signature weapon in Russia's more than four-year-old full-scale invasion.
Wider overnight attacks
The assault on Zaporizhzhia was part of a broader wave of Russian strikes. Ukraine's air force said Moscow launched 181 long-range drones overnight from Sunday to Monday, of which 163 were jammed or intercepted. Fourteen drones caused damage at 13 locations, though details were not immediately available.
In Russia, six people were killed and 40 wounded by debris from Ukrainian drones in Arkhipo-Osipovka, a small town on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev. Separately, three people were killed and two wounded in an overnight Ukrainian attack on the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula, said Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of the region. Neither side's claims could be independently verified.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces struck four bulk carriers it claimed were carrying cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces, including three in Black Sea waters and one in the port of Mykolaiv. No further details were provided.
Zelenskyy renews plea for Patriot systems
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used the latest attacks to press allies again for more US-made Patriot air defence systems, which are the only reliable way to intercept ballistic missiles. In a social media post on Sunday night, he said: “The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages. The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people, not sit in stockpiles.”
His appeal comes as Washington debates whether to allow Ukraine to produce Patriots under licence. Last week, US President Donald Trump appeared to backtrack on an earlier commitment, saying on Friday that the licensing matter was still under discussion. Zelenskyy has also floated an alternative proposal under which Elon Musk would let Ukraine use Starlink satellites to target ballistic missile launch sites inside Russia, though officials have not publicly confirmed whether that is being considered.
Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions—along with Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk—that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022, even though its forces do not fully control them. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest, has been under Russian occupation since early in the war, and the city itself has endured repeated bombardments.
Cultural losses mount
In a separate development, a Russian strike on a warehouse in Kharkiv over the weekend destroyed 8 million books, according to the publishing house Ranok. The company called it “the largest loss to Ukraine's book infrastructure since the beginning of the full-scale war” and said the blaze was still burning. “The enemy is trying to burn out our education and culture,” it said in a statement.
Ranok's director, Viktor Kruglov, described the attack as “an attack on Ukrainian education and culture.” The publisher, whose portfolio includes works by George Orwell and Barack Obama, said a similar strike on a warehouse near Kyiv last month had burned 800,000 books to ash. Throughout the invasion, Russian forces have repeatedly targeted Ukrainian museums, galleries, film studios, churches and other cultural sites, drawing accusations from Kyiv that Moscow is deliberately erasing Ukrainian heritage.
The latest strikes come as Ukraine continues to develop its long-range drone capabilities, with recent attacks on Russian infrastructure including a fire at a Wildberries warehouse and a bombing at a Moscow restaurant. Meanwhile, European allies have been tightening measures against Russian interests, such as Lithuania's new restrictions on pro-Kremlin residents.
