Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in an attack on Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said. Metinvest reported that seven civilian workers at its steel plant were killed and 21 were injured.
The attack was part of a wider Russian assault using missiles, drones and glide bombs, according to Zelenskyy. Three other civilians, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by Russian drones and artillery in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said.
Damage reported in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk
A strike hit the grounds of a children’s hospital, leaving two craters but causing no injuries, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. The reported deaths at the Metinvest plant were among the casualties from the attack on the south-eastern city.
Ukraine’s authorities also reported attacks elsewhere, including a fire at logistical facilities operated by the Russian online retailer Wildberries in the Voronezh region, near the Ukrainian border.
Related coverage: Ukraine says North Korean military support to Russia is expanding.
Ukraine reports strikes inside Russia and near Romania
Ukraine’s military general staff said its forces struck an oil refinery in Orsk, in Russia’s Orenburg region near Kazakhstan, about 1,500km from Ukraine, causing a fire. The refinery can process about 44 million barrels of crude oil a year into gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and other products.
Romania’s defence ministry said its navy destroyed two suspected Russian Gerbera-type drones drifting in the Black Sea about 90 nautical miles from Constanta. Divers blew up the drones, and officials said some pieces were recovered. Ukraine said the drones were not Ukrainian.
Zelenskyy warns of a possible Russian mobilisation
Zelenskyy said Russia was exploiting Ukraine’s shortage of Patriot air-defence interceptors, which can stop ballistic missiles, and preparing to recruit more troops for a new frontline push. He said Ukrainian intelligence believed Moscow could use its September parliamentary election as a pretext for a new mobilisation.
More context: First road crossing between Russia and North Korea almost finished amid Ukraine war logistics fears.
The Russian supreme court barred Yabloko, described as the only officially registered party opposing Moscow’s war in Ukraine, from competing in the election. Zelenskyy said Russia could seek to mobilise several hundred thousand people by the end of the year and a similar number the following year; those figures were presented as his assessment, not as an announced Russian mobilisation.
Ukraine says it has sent peace proposals to US negotiators
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had given US negotiators proposals for a plan to end the war but did not provide details. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the negotiators identified in the briefing, were last in Moscow in January and had not yet visited Kyiv.
The Institute for the Study of War said Russia’s belief that it could still achieve its full objectives could prevent serious negotiations. The UN separately estimated that more than 16,000 civilians detained by Russia remained deprived of their liberty, while the UN assistant secretary general for human rights said torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, were continuing against Ukrainian civilian detainees and prisoners of war.
Also read: Civilian Deaths Reported Amid Ongoing Attacks in Ukraine and Russian-Occupied Areas.
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