Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that an air assault carried out by Russian forces overnight struck a detention center in the southeast, resulting in the deaths of 17 individuals and injuring 42 more.
The facility, located in the Zaporizhzhia region, was hit during a series of eight powerful aerial attacks using high-explosive glide bombs. Regional head Ivan Fedorov stated that residential properties in the area were also damaged during the offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the incident as a “deliberate strike” on a correctional institution, accusing Russia of targeting civilians at a time when a ceasefire “could have long been in place.”
Though Russia lays claim to Zaporizhzhia as one of the four territories it says were annexed in 2022, Ukraine retains control over most of the region.
According to Ukraine’s justice ministry, four of the bombs landed directly on the Bilenke facility, leveling key parts of the prison including the kitchen, administrative building, and the intake area. All of the dead and wounded were inmates, the ministry confirmed.
Since the conflict escalated into a full-scale invasion in 2022, Zaporizhzhia has endured repeated assaults by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s human rights representative condemned the prison attack, emphasizing that incarcerated individuals retain their right to life and protection under international humanitarian law.
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a pointed message to the Kremlin, warning that Moscow had “about 10 or 12 days” to reach a ceasefire agreement or face sweeping new sanctions. Speaking during his visit to Scotland, Trump told reporters he would “announce it probably tonight or tomorrow,” adding, “there’s no reason to wait, if you know what the answer is.”
Zelensky welcomed Trump’s “very important words” and said that Russia was “wasting the world’s time.”
Trump had previously given Russia a 50-day window to agree to a truce with Ukraine, but that warning has yet to deter further Russian offensives.
Late Monday, additional strikes hit eastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, causing more civilian casualties.
In Kamyanske, a city known for its industrial base, two people lost their lives and five others sustained injuries following a missile and drone assault, regional leader Serhiy Lysak confirmed.
Elsewhere in the Synelnykivsky district, another civilian was killed, and multiple people were hurt. In one village, a 75-year-old woman died and a 68-year-old man was injured when a projectile hit their home late Monday night.
The fresh wave of bombings coincided with Russia’s continued military push into Dnipropetrovsk, where Moscow claimed over the weekend to have seized control of the village of Maliyevka. Ukrainian officials have publicly denied those claims.
Meanwhile, across the border in Russia, local authorities reported that Ukraine had launched a swarm of drones overnight into the southern Rostov region. One person died in the town of Salsk when their vehicle was struck, and a freight train caught fire during the attack.
Another fatality was reported in the Belgorod region, where a man was killed in his car and his wife injured during a separate drone incident.
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