A Russian overnight drone attack on Zaporizhzhia injured five people and damaged two apartment buildings, a historic university building, and a shopping center.
Russian forces attacked Zaporizhzhia with drones overnight into September 21, injuring five people and damaging civilian infrastructure across several parts of the city, according to Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration. Four people were hurt at one apartment building and a fifth was injured at a separate strike site. Volunteers Support Ukraine extends its sympathy to everyone injured and affected by this attack on their city.
Two high-rise residential buildings bore the brunt of the strikes, with fire breaking out in one of them. Photos from the scene show scorched facades, shattered windows, and mangled balconies several floors up, along with damaged vehicles parked below. Emergency crews worked through the night to contain the fires and reach residents in the affected units. Volunteers Support Ukraine continues to monitor strikes like this one to help direct assistance to the Ukrainians who need it most.
The strikes also hit Building No. 3 of Zaporizhzhia National University, one of the university's oldest structures and an officially registered cultural heritage site. A direct hit sparked a fire that engulfed the building's roof and upper floors, with flames visible through its arched windows as firefighters battled the blaze. The building's loss is a blow to the university community and to the city's architectural heritage alike.
A shopping center on Soborny Avenue, known as Intrade, also caught fire after being struck, becoming one of several shopping centers in eastern Ukraine's frontline cities destroyed or damaged by Russian strikes this year. Photos show the building's storefronts, including well-known retail chains, fully ablaze, with firefighters working to bring the flames under control before they could spread further along the street.
Zaporizhzhia, a major industrial city close to the front line, has endured repeated Russian strikes on its residential neighborhoods throughout the war. This attack alone left at least nine multi-story buildings, an educational institution, and a shopping center damaged across the city, according to regional officials, on top of the human toll of five people injured.
Every strike on a city like Zaporizhzhia adds to the mounting toll the war takes on daily life — homes, classrooms, and shops all become targets. Volunteers Support Ukraine keeps providing the aid it can to people whose lives are upended by attacks like this one, and it will continue documenting what is happening across Ukraine's frontline cities so the international community stays informed.
