Shelling In Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Kills 18, Including A Child. Zelenskyy Calls It 'Deliberate Crime'

The count has kept increasing since the shelling, initially, on Saturday the number was 14 but it later increased to 17.

New Delhi: Overnight shelling in the industrial town of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, killed 18 including one child, Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday.

According to AFP, the Russian missiles struck before dawn on Thursday, three of which landed at the town centre, 40 kilometres away from the artillery battles of the southern front.

Reuters reported officials as saying that the total death count from the Russian rocket attack against Zaporizhzhia had risen to 18.

The tally has continued to increase over the days as on October 6, Thursday the initial count stood at 1. Then on Saturday, the death toll was 14 which further increased to 17 including one child, Ukraine's State Emergency Service told AFP.

According to a report, a five-storey residential building was almost wrecked to the ground. Speaking to AFP, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Zaporizhzhia "is subjected to massive rocket attacks every day...". The Ukrainian president called it "a deliberate crime".

The Ukraine-controlled city is located in the eponymous Zaporizhzhia region, it is also home to the Russian-occupied nuclear plant that has been the site of heavy shelling, AFP reported.

Even though Russian troops do not control all of it, Moscow claims to have annexed the region.

Last week, at least 30 people were killed when a convoy of civilian cars in the Zaporizhzhia region was shelled in an attack Kyiv blamed on Moscow.

Notably, in a video address, President Zelenskyy said that the country's troops are in very tough fighting near the strategically important eastern town of Bakhmut, which Russia is trying to take, Reuters reported. 

Russian forces have repeatedly tried to seize Bakhmut, which is on the main road leading to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, both are in the industrial Donbas region, which Moscow has yet to fully capture.

"We are holding our positions in the Donbas, in particular in the Bakhmut direction, where it is very, very difficult now, very tough fighting," said Zelensky.

(With Agency Inputs)