Russian Missiles Strike Apartment Building Near Nuclear Power Plant

A barrage of Russian missiles in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia struck an apartment block on Thursday, killing at least three civilians. The strike has been labeled a war crime by Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian MP. “They are targeting civilians,” Vasylenko said. “Every time they target civilians is when they cannot get any advancement on the military front. So they shift to the strategy where they are trying to break the morale of the people.”

Zaporizhzhia is one of the four regions Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed following a referendum denounced by Western Europe and the United States. Ukrainian forces made gains in the region recently, prompting retaliatory attacks from Russia. Zaporizhzhia contains the largest nuclear plant in Europe, and has been a continual topic of concern throughout the war, as Ukraine and surrounding nations fear the consequences of a nuclear meltdown triggered by a wayward missile striking the facility. On Wednesday, Putin signed a decree declaring Russia’s ownership over the power plant, which Moscow forces have occupied since March. The plant’s last reactor was shut off in September.

Media outlets across the spectrum are still working towards a consensus on how to write about the regions Russia declared it annexed. Fox News (Right Bias) put the word “annexed” in quotation marks along with the word “liberated” when referring to Ukrainian victories. The Associated Press (Lean Left Bias) categorized them as “illegally annexed.” Newsweek (Center Bias) labeled them regions that Putin “declared Moscow had annexed.”