Sixteen dead and 90 injured as Russian missiles hit Ukraine prison

Irish Independent

5 days ago

Four powerful Russian glide bombs hit a prison in Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, authorities said. They killed at least 16 inmates and wounded more than 90 others, Ukraine's justice ministry said.
In the Dnipro region of central Ukraine, authorities said Russian missiles partially destroyed a three-storey building and damaged nearby medical facilities, including a maternity hospital and a city hospital ward. At least three people were killed, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman, and two other people were killed elsewhere in the region, regional authorities said.
These were conscious, deliberate strikes – not accidental
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that overnight Russian strikes across the country hit 73 cities, towns and villages. 'These were conscious, deliberate strikes – not accidental,' Mr Zelensky said on Telegram.
Mr Trump said on Monday he is giving Russian president Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war, moving up a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago. The move meant Mr Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by August 7-9.
He has repeatedly rebuked Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. But the Kremlin hasn't changed its tactics.
I'm disappointed in President Putin
'I'm disappointed in President Putin,' Mr Trump said during a visit to Scotland.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that Russia is determined to achieve its goals in Ukraine, though he said Moscow has 'taken note' of Mr Trump's announcement and is committed to seeking a peaceful solution.
Mr Zelensky welcomed Mr Trump's shortening of the deadline. 'Everyone needs peace – Ukraine, Europe, the United States and responsible leaders across the globe,' Mr Zelensky wrote in a post on Telegram. 'Everyone except Russia.'
The Kremlin pushed back, with a top Putin lieutenant warning Mr Trump against 'playing the ultimatum game with Russia'.
'Russia isn't Israel or even Iran,' former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy head of the country's security council, wrote on social platform X.
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Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war
'Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,' Mr Medvedev said.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour, the Kremlin has warned Kyiv's Western backers that their involvement could end up broadening the war to Nato countries. 'Kremlin officials continue to frame Russia as in direct geopolitical confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against Nato,' the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think-tank, said late on Monday.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. It said 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralised by Ukrainian air defences.
The Russian attack close to midnight on Monday hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Facility with glide bombs, according to the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine.
Glide bombs, which are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with retractable fins and guidance systems, have been laying waste to cities in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army is trying to pierce Ukrainian defences. The bombs carry up to 3,000kg of explosives.
At least 42 inmates were taken to hospital with serious injuries, while another 40 people, including one staff member, sustained various injuries.
The strike destroyed the prison's dining hall, damaged administrative and quarantine buildings, but the perimeter fence held and no escapes were reported, authorities said. Ukrainian officials condemned the attack, saying that targeting civilian infrastructure, such as prisons, is a war crime under international conventions.
The assault occurred exactly three years after an explosion killed more than 50 people at the Olenivka detention facility in the Russia-occupied Donetsk region.
Russian forces also struck a grocery store in a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region, police said, killing five and wounding three civilians.
Alongside the barrages, Russia has also kept up its grinding war of attrition, which has slowly churned across the eastern side of Ukraine at a heavy cost in troop losses and military hardware.