(CNN) Russia unleashed a wave of deadly attacks on towns and cities across Ukraine on Wednesday as Chinese leader Xi Jinping left Moscow after talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Xi left the Russian capital promising to deepen ties with Putin but the meetings failed to achieve a breakthrough in Ukraine.
As Xi flew back to Beijing, the Russian military launched a barrage of strikes on Iran-made Shahed drones in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, killing at least nine people, according to Ukrainian authorities. Andrii Niebytov, the Kyiv regional police chief, said seven others were injured when the drone hit a dormitory building in the town of Rzhyshchiv.
In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, at least one person was killed and 34 injured — including two children — after Russian missiles hit apartment blocks, in what was described as a “deliberate strike ” to “kill civilians,” according to the senior. Ukrainian official and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.
Video of the attack showed an explosion going off the side of two nine-story residential buildings.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said in a statement that at least six missiles hit the city, causing significant damage.
“One of the missiles hit between two tall buildings, partially destroying apartments and balconies, damaging roofs and breaking windows,” the statement said. “The blast wave and debris also damaged other nearby residential buildings, vehicles and other civilian infrastructure in the city.”
A residential building destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on March 22.
‘We are not afraid’
The student, Kyrylo Chorniy, 20, was inside the apartment block just a few meters from the explosion.
Using a torch to point to his apartment, he told CNN outside the complex that he “heard an explosion and saw a fire.”
Inside, all the windows were blown out. Chorniy said that his father was standing by the window when the explosion happened and he escaped death. However, Chorniy and his parents said they will not be forced out of their home.
“We’re mostly angry. We’re not scared. Why are we? This is our home,” he said. “I sleep in my bed. My parents sleep in their beds. It’s a bit cold because we don’t have a window but we have nowhere to go.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “bestial savagery” on the social media app Telegram and later said Wednesday’s wave of Russian strikes would be met with a response from Ukraine.
“All strikes on Russia will receive a military, political, and legal response,” he said. “Russia will lose this war.”
The Biden administration on Wednesday stopped short of accusing Russia of targeting civilians with missile attacks on Zaporizhzhia but said it was “definitely” consistent with previous attacks.
“It’s clearly from the Russian playbook to target civilian infrastructure and not care about avoiding targeting civilians,” said John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications.
A look at CCTV footage of the moment of a missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine March 22, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video.
Zelensky visited the front lines
Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday’s attacks involved a volley of 21 drones launched against Ukraine from the north, of which it shot down 16.
The strikes came as Zelensky made an unannounced visit to Ukrainian troops on the front lines in the eastern Donbas region, where some of the fiercest fighting has been with Russian forces. .
Video from the Ukrainian Presidential Office shows Zelensky giving medals to soldiers in Kharkiv and visiting wounded soldiers in a hospital near the front lines in the Donetsk region.
Some of the wounded helped defend the city of Bakhmut in a month-long battle to keep Russian troops from the strategic city. According to the Ukrainian military, the Moscow forces are spending a lot of people trying to retake Bakhmut and the offensive capacity of Russian troops in and around the city is decreasing.
“It is depressing to look at the cities of Donbas, where Russia has brought terrible suffering and destruction,” Zelensky said in his nightly speech on Wednesday.
“Right there, in the Donbas, in the Kharkiv region — wherever the evil Russian came, it was clear that the terrorist state could not be stopped by anything but one thing — our victory.”
One of Ukraine’s top military generals, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on Thursday said that Russian forces in Bakhmut were depleted which would allow his country’s soldiers to go on the offensive “soon.”
“[Russians] lost vital force [in Bakhmut] and running out of energy,” he said in a telegram post on Thursday. “Soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with a Ukrainian soldier during his visit to the Bakhmut frontline in Donetsk region, Ukraine on March 22.
Xi’s trip failed to pave the way for peace
Wednesday’s wave of attacks in Ukraine came as Putin wrapped up hosting his Chinese counterpart in Moscow after a three-day state visit that Beijing billed as a mission of peace, but failed to achieve ot any success in resolving the conflict.
The two leaders called for an end to actions that “raise tension” and “prolong” the war, according to their joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry. The statement did not acknowledge that Russia’s invasion and military offensive is the cause of the ongoing violence and the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, China has positioned itself as a peace broker in Ukraine, outlining its position on a “political solution” to the conflict, calling for a ceasefire and talks on peace
But the proposal is viewed as a nonstarter by the West and Kyiv, as there is no provision for Moscow to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian soil.
On Tuesday, Zelensky said a ceasefire would “only freeze” the conflict, giving Russia time to “prepare and get back to their one dream, the dream of their leader – that is the occupation of our country.”
CNN’s Ivan Watson, Vasco Cotovio, Victoria Butenko, Josh Pennington and Simone McCarthy contributed reporting.
