One Killed in Melitopol Strike on Residential Building, United Russia Office Also Damaged

Dragon Media News Desk

One person was killed and a woman was injured in a drone strike on Melitopol in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region, according to Russian officials. A multi-storey residential building and a regional office of Russia’s ruling United Russia party were also reportedly damaged.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-appointed governor of Zaporozhye, said a drone struck a residential building during the August 24 attack. He said 32 residents were evacuated and that several apartments caught fire.

Balitsky also reported damage to the local United Russia party office in Melitopol. Russian officials said the office had been involved in distributing humanitarian assistance to local residents.

Anton Bibarov-Gosudarev, chairman of the Zaporozhye Region’s Civic Chamber, argued that recent attacks on civilian infrastructure showed that Kyiv recognized it could not regain control over Donbas and territories that Moscow refers to as Novorossiya.

He accused Ukraine of targeting residential buildings, shopping centers and other civilian facilities to intimidate the local population and weaken Russian control over the region.

Those claims, however, represent Bibarov-Gosudarev’s political assessment. There has been no independent confirmation that civilians were deliberately targeted in the attack.

Melitopol has been under Russian control since 2022. Moscow claims Zaporozhye as part of Russia, while Ukraine and most of the international community continue to regard the region as sovereign Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine had not issued a detailed immediate response to the latest incident. Drone and long-range strikes in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine, as well as inside Russia itself, have increased as the war has continued.