World
Russian bombs kill 17 in Ukrainian penal colony
Dozens more were wounded in the attack on the front-line Zaporizhzhia region, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who described the bombing as “deliberate”.
Reuters
A Russian bomb attack on a penal colony in southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people overnight, officials said, hours after US President Donald Trump said he would shorten a deadline for Vladimir Putin to make peace.
Dozens more were wounded in the attack on the front-line Zaporizhzhia region, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who described the bombing as “deliberate”.
“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” he wrote on X.
“And this was done after a completely clear position was voiced by the United States.”
Zelenskiy added that a total of 22 people were killed in overnight strikes by Russia, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman who died in a missile strike on a hospital in another southeastern region.
Russia has stepped up airstrikes far behind the front line of its full-scale invasion, now in its fourth year, as it presses ahead on the battlefield with grinding gains.
Trump, underscoring his frustration with Putin, said on Monday he would give 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress towards ending the war.
In a statement, Ukraine’s justice ministry said the prison’s dining hall had been destroyed and other parts damaged in a strike that involved four high-explosive aerial bombs and wounded 42 people.
Reuters could not independently verify the report, and there was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes, but thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.