The double column of cars and minivans stopped on a broad strip of pavement in a province in southern Ukraine appears frozen in time. The vehicles hold the belongings of people on a long journey, such as suitcases, full plastic bags and water bottles. The strikes that hit a convoy of people fleeing fighting in the province of Zaporizhzhia began early on Friday, and there are signs of the violence. A crater is a few yards to the right of the convoy, its edges are blackened. Most of the vehicles are pockmarked by shrapnel, most of their tires are deflated and their windows are blown out. According to the region s police chief, Ihor Klymenko, 30 people died and 88 people were wounded in a Russian missile attack. Pictures from the scene showed security personnel removing bodies that had been placed in black plastic sacks, while others lay on the ground. An 11-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy died and a 3-year-old girl was wounded, he said in a post on Facebook.
Another farce took place in Moscow today, Mr. Zelensky said in an overnight address on Friday. There was something celebrated. They were chanting something there. They sang in the square. They were talking about Zaporizhzhia when they themselves arranged such a thing in Zaporizhzhia. Since Russia invaded in February, the strike has resulted in a litany of large-scale attacks on civilian targets. In April, an attack at a Kramatorsk railway station killed 50 in eastern Ukraine, a missile strike in June on a shopping mall in the city of Kremenchuk killed 16 and an attack on a shopping mall in July in Vinnytsia killed 20. Russia has blamed Ukraine for civilian deaths, and has denied responsibility for it. Russia seems to have increased its strikes on eastern and southern targets in the past few days. The head of the regional military association, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on the Telegram social messaging app that four civilians died in Donetsk province on Friday. And a mother and a three-month-old baby were wounded overnight in the port city of Mykolaiv when a missile hit a house, according to the city s mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. Experts said the military value of the attacks was questioned as Ukraine made territorial gains in the northeast of the country in September and in the east in spurs. A British military intelligence report said on Saturday that Russia may be using up scarce supplies of the type of long-range air defense missile used in the Zaporizhzhia attack. Russia has a stock of such missiles that is highly likely limited and is a high-value resource designed to shoot down modern aircraft and incoming missiles rather than for use against ground targets, the report said.