Despite US President Donald Trump’s 12-day deadline to stop hostilities, Russia has intensified its military campaign in southeastern Ukraine with a deadly airstrike on a prison facility in Zaporizhzhia, killing at least 17 inmates and injuring 42 others, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.
The overnight assault is the latest in a series of brutal strikes that signal Moscow’s unwavering aggression despite international condemnation.
Quoting Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor, BBC reports that Russian forces launched eight high-explosive aerial glide bombs in the attack, which also damaged nearby residential areas. 
Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice confirmed that four of the bombs directly struck the Bilenke penitentiary, destroying key infrastructure including the dining hall, administrative building, and a quarantine unit.
“All the victims were inmates,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that emergency crews were still combing through debris.
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, decried the strike as “another war crime,” emphasising the deliberate targeting of non-combatants.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner also condemned the attack, calling it a “gross violation of international humanitarian law,” underscoring that “imprisonment does not strip individuals of their right to life and protection.”
Zaporizhzhia, one of the four regions Russia claims to have annexed in 2022, remains largely under Ukrainian control.
Yet it has been a frequent target of Russia’s military operations since the start of the full-scale invasion.
