Russian overnight drone barrage hits Zaporizhzhia and 10 Ukrainian regions, Zelenskyy says, as UN week opens

 Russian overnight drone barrage hits Zaporizhzhia and 10 Ukrainian regions, Zelenskyy says, as UN week opens KYIV — Ukrainian President Vol...

 Russian overnight drone barrage hits Zaporizhzhia and 10 Ukrainian regions, Zelenskyy says, as UN week opens

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that Russia carried out a “vicious, deliberate” overnight attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia and struck 10 regions in all, killing at least one civilian in the Kharkiv region and injuring others as world leaders prepare to gather for the UN General Assembly.

In a post on X early Monday, Zelenskyy said nine-story apartment buildings, a university facility, a shopping mall and a boiler house were damaged in Zaporizhzhia. Five people had been reported injured there at the time of his statement, and some residents were evacuated. In Lozova, in the Kharkiv region, he said a woman was killed in a drone strike and three other people were wounded. He offered condolences to her family.

Local officials later described a broader picture of damage. Emergency services and regional authorities said two nine-story residential buildings and a shopping center caught fire in Zaporizhzhia, and a building of Zaporizhzhia National University was hit. That university structure, Building No. 3, is a cultural-heritage site dating to the early 1900s and originally served as a women’s gymnasium; officials said a large fire followed a direct hit. Injury figures in the city varied in morning updates, with some local reports putting the number at five or six. Rescuers said they evacuated residents and continued to work at the sites.

In Lozova, prosecutors said Russian forces used five drones, preliminarily identified as Geran-type aircraft. A woman was killed. Two other women suffered acute stress reactions and a 62-year-old man was injured, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office. Residential and administrative buildings and railway infrastructure were damaged, and fires broke out, including on the roof of a two-story apartment building. Separately, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported a morning drone strike on a private home in the village of Katerynivka in the Lozova community that killed a woman and left a 13-year-old boy with severe burns. Ukrzaliznytsia said Lozova railway station was also hit; passengers and staff were in shelters and were not injured.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 172 strike drones from Sunday evening, including 64 jet-powered aircraft as well as decoys. Air defenses shot down or suppressed 147 targets, Ukrainian officials said, though hits were recorded in several places. Zelenskyy said the strikes reached 10 regions. Broader overnight tallies compiled by Ukrainian outlets put the nationwide toll from the wave at two people killed and at least 11 injured, though figures were still being updated.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had targeted Ukrainian logistics hubs, warehouses and ports and other military-related sites, and alleged that some vessels were used to support Ukrainian troops. Moscow routinely denies deliberately striking civilians; Kyiv says residential buildings, schools, universities and shops are regularly hit. Independent verification of every strike site was not immediately possible.

Zelenskyy framed the attack as part of a wider Russian escalation. “Russia is not backing down from its escalation and is sending many signals that it is ready to expand the war,” he wrote. “All of this is happening as the stability of the world has already been shattered by this war.” He argued that sanctions, including long-range measures, and other pressure on Moscow “are actually working,” but said diplomacy must proceed in parallel. At the UN General Assembly, he said, Ukraine would discuss “how we can achieve peace through joint efforts.” That, he added, “is the main task that all leaders should be working on.”

The timing is politically charged. The strikes came as leaders assemble in New York for high-level UN week and after reports of large Ukrainian drone operations against Russian territory. Zelenskyy has said he expects to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the gathering; Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending. More than four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, neither side has shown a public breakthrough toward a ceasefire.

Zaporizhzhia, a major industrial city on the Dnipro River and close to the front, has been repeatedly targeted throughout the war. A historic university building and civilian high-rises being hit in the same night will likely feature in Kyiv’s argument that Russia continues to attack civilian life even as it talks, through intermediaries, about negotiations. Moscow is expected to portray the same overnight campaign as a response to Ukrainian long-range drone strikes.

Emergency crews were still clearing debris and extinguishing fires Monday morning. Casualty and damage figures may change as searches continue.