Russian glide bombs kill two in Zaporizhzhia, injure 15

Russian glide bombs hit Zaporizhzhia, killing two people and injuring at least 15 more as seven bombs fell over about 90 minutes, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration and a former mayor of Russian-occupied Melitopol. Television footage from the city showed emergency crews carrying wounded residents to safety and directing hoses at buildings set ablaze, underscoring how fast the bombardment turned ordinary streets into fire scenes.

The attack highlighted why glide bombs have become such a damaging tool in the war. Released from aircraft, they let Russian pilots strike from farther back from the front line, reducing the risk to the planes while still reaching targets in Ukrainian cities. That makes them harder for Ukraine to stop than threats that can be tracked well in advance, and it leaves defenders trying to cover a broad area with only a limited window to react. Even with continued Western support for Ukraine’s air defenses, Zaporizhzhia remains exposed because it sits close enough to the front to be hit again and again.

The Tuesday strike came after a Russian drone attack on a minibus in Zaporizhzhia on June 29 killed two men and a woman and injured eight others, including a 7-year-old boy. Two days earlier, on June 28, Russian guided bombs hit residential buildings in the city, killing at least one person and injuring 14 others, including two children. On June 20, guided aerial bombs killed at least five people and wounded 26 in Zaporizhzhia, and reporting on that attack said nine glide bombs were launched.

The repeated strikes show the pressure on the city’s civilian infrastructure and rescue services, which have had to respond to lethal attacks on consecutive days. They also fit a wider national pattern: the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured in May 2026, the highest monthly civilian toll since April 2022. In Zaporizhzhia, each new blast adds to a steady tally of dead, wounded and burned-out buildings that keeps the city under constant strain.