Ukraine live briefing: Deadly strikes in Zaporizhzhia, reducing homes to rubble

Overnight airstrikes on the city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 people, injured scores of civilians, and reduced high-rise apartment buildings and homes to rubble, Ukrainian officials said Sunday. President Volodymyr Zelensky branded the strikes “absolute evil,” while the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, asked for more defense systems.

On Saturday, a giant explosion collapsed part of a strategic bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, the southern Ukrainian territory Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday evening characterized the attack as an attempt to destroy “critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation.” He blamed the Ukrainian special services.