BILENKE (Ukraine): The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted peace in Ukraine, hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates.
The strikes came just hours after US President Donald Trump set a new deadline of 10-12 days for Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine — now into a fourth year — or face new sanctions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of willfully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region — that Russia claims as its own — killing 16 people and wounding dozens others.
“It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Zelensky said on social media in response.
The Kremlin denied the claim.
“The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP.
Peskov said Moscow had “taken note” of Trump’s new deadline and that it remained “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests.”
Ukraine’s justice ministry said Russian forces hit the prison in Bilenke with four glide bombs. Police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 wounded.
Bricks and debris and blown out windows were strewn on the ground, according to images released by the ministry.
The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.
“All necessary assistance was provided to the prisoners,” Dmytro Azarov, deputy head of the facility told AFP.
Rescue workers searched for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.
A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility.
The source added there were no Russian war prisoners at the centre.
Nadiya, a resident of Bilenke, told AFP the attack damaged her house.
“At about ten minutes to six, a neighbour called and said: ‘Come quickly, your roof is gone.’ Is that normal? Not a single window is intact,” the 74-year-old said.
The Ukrainian air force said that Russia also launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones.
One attack targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounding 22 people.
“Putin is rejecting a ceasefire, avoiding a leaders’ meeting, and prolonging the war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.
“He will only end his terror if we break the spine of his economy,” he added, calling on Western allies to consolidate around sanctions on Moscow.
“Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old,” Zelensky said.
Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said.
In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said.
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