Zelenskyy says Russian strike on Ukraine prison was ‘deliberate'
'It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,' Zelenskyy said in a statement on social media.
The Russian airstrike on a prison in southeastern Ukraine overnight killed 17 inmates and wounded dozens of others, Kyiv said on Tuesday.
The strike came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine — now in its fourth year — or face tough new sanctions.
Russia carried out eight strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region overnight, hitting the prison, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration.
Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, killing 17 inmates and wounding another 42, including one staff member at the detention center.
Images released by the ministry showed bricks and debris strewn across the ground around buildings with blown-out windows. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat of an inmate escape, it added.
Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services.
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