Leaders of China and Japan end their visits to warring capitals
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Ukraine’s president posted a video Wednesday showing what he said was a Russian missile slamming into an apartment building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia — killing at least one person — after Moscow’s forces launched exploding drones before dawn that killed seven people at a student dormitory near Kyiv.
The video posted by President Volodymyr Zelensky to Telegram appeared to be closed-circuit TV footage that captured the moment a missile hit the nine-story residential block beside a busy road.
Ukrainian media carried pictures showing charred apartments on several stories of the affected buildings and flames billowing from some of them. Two children were among the wounded, said Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Anatolii Kurtiev, adding that 25 people needed hospital treatment, three of them in critical condition.
“Russia is shelling the city with bestial savagery,” Zelensky wrote in a message accompanying the video. “Residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at.”
He appealed for countries to increase pressure on the Kremlin to give up its invasion of Ukraine.
The city is about 60 miles from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which has previously come under threat during the war.
Russia has denied targeting residential areas even though artillery and rocket strikes hit apartment buildings and civilian infrastructure on a daily basis.
Earlier Wednesday, an overnight drone attack partially destroyed a high school and two dormitories in the city of Rzhyshchiv, south of the Ukrainian capital, local officials said. It wasn’t clear how many people were in the dormitories at the time.
The body of a 40-year-old man was pulled from the rubble on a dormitory’s fifth floor, according to regional police chief Andrii Nebytov. More than 20 people were hospitalized.
Just hours earlier, Japan’s prime minister left the Ukrainian capital following a show of support for the country. Chinese President Xi Jinping also left Moscow after discussing his proposal for ending the war, which has been rejected by the West as a nonstarter.
The drone barrage and other Russian overnight attacks that struck civilian infrastructure drew a scathing response from Zelensky.
“Over 20 Iranian murderous drones, plus missiles, numerous shelling occasions, and that’s just in one last night of Russian terror,” Zelensky wrote in English on Twitter.
“Every time someone tries to hear the word ‘peace’ in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes,” he wrote.
Zaporizhzhia’s regional administration said two missiles struck the apartment block, describing Russia’s goal as trying “to scare the civilian population of the city of thousands.”
“It’s hell in Zaporizhzhia,” Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote on Telegram, adding: “There aren’t any military facilities nearby.”
Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Moscow-appointed administration for the Russian-occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region, claimed that the building was hit by a Ukrainian air defense missile launched to intercept a Russian missile. He offered no evidence to back up his claim.
Russian officials have blamed Ukrainian air defenses for some of the deadliest strikes on apartment buildings in the past, alleging that the deployment of air defense systems in residential areas puts civilians at risk.
Ukrainian air defenses downed 16 of the 21 drones launched by Russia, Ukraine’s General Staff said. Eight of them were shot down near the capital, according to the city’s military administration. Other drone attacks struck central-western Khmelnytskyi province.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called Russia’s invasion a “disgrace that undermines the foundations of the international legal order” and pledged to “continue to support Ukraine until peace is back on the beautiful Ukrainian lands.”
Kishida said he had expressed the “unwavering determination of solidarity” of Japan and other Group of 7 countries to Ukraine during his talks with Zelensky.
Kishida’s visit to Ukraine was “very meaningful” for Japan’s future support for Kyiv, Japan’s top government spokesman said Wednesday.
“Through Prime Minister Kishida’s visit to Ukraine, Japan was able to show not only to other members of the G-7 but also the international society, including the Global South [nations], its determination to defend the rules-based international society,” Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Kishida’s visit snatched away some of the attention from Xi’s trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Xi left Moscow early Wednesday.
In a joint statement, Russia and China emphasized the need to “respect legitimate security concerns of all countries” to settle the conflict, echoing Moscow’s argument that it sent in troops to prevent the U.S. and its NATO allies from turning Ukraine into an anti-Russian bulwark.
Also Wednesday, Zelensky visited military positions in the eastern Donetsk region and gave state awards to the defenders of Bakhmut, a devastated city that has become a symbol of Ukraine’s dogged resistance.
Ukraine’s finance ministry said Wednesday said it has agreed with the International Monetary Fund on a $15.6-billion loan package aimed at shoring up Kyiv’s finances. Russia’s invasion has crippled the economy, and Ukrainian officials hope the IMF deal will encourage their allies to provide financial support, too.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.