Russian bombs kill 17 in Ukrainian penal colony
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Russian bombs kill 17 in Ukrainian penal colony
Russian bomb attack on a penal colony in southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people overnight. Dozens more were wounded in the attack on the front-line Zaporizhzhia region. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the bombing as “deliberate” 22 people were killed in overnight strikes by Russia, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman who died in a missile strike on a hospital in another southeastern region. Russia has stepped up airstrikes far behind the front line of its full-scale invasion, now in its fourth year.
Item 1 of 5 A view of the penal colony hit by a Russian air strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine July 29, 2025. State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS
Summary Zelenskiy condemns attack as deliberate targeting of civilians
Trump sets deadline for Putin to make peace
Ukraine’s justice ministry reports prison dining hall destroyed
July 29 (Reuters) – A Russian bomb attack on a penal colony in southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people overnight, officials said, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would shorten a deadline for Vladimir Putin to make peace.
Dozens more were wounded in the attack on the front-line Zaporizhzhia region, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who described the bombing as “deliberate”.
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“The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” he wrote on X.
“And this was done after a completely clear position was voiced by the United States.”
Zelenskiy added that a total of 22 people were killed in overnight strikes by Russia, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman who died in a missile strike on a hospital in another southeastern region.
Russia has stepped up airstrikes far behind the front line of its full-scale invasion , now in its fourth year, as it presses ahead on the battlefield with grinding gains.
Trump, underscoring his frustration with Putin, said on Monday he would give 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress towards ending the war.
In a statement, Ukraine’s justice ministry said the prison’s dining hall had been destroyed and other parts damaged in a strike that involved four high-explosive aerial bombs and wounded 42 people.
Reuters could not independently verify the report, and there was no immediate comment from Russia.
Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes, but thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Reporting by Lidia Kelly and Dan Pelschuk; Editing by Sharon Singleton
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Russia kills 21 civilians in Ukraine as the Kremlin remains defiant over Trump threats
Russian glide bombs and missiles struck a Ukrainian prison and a medical facility overnight, killing at least 21 people. A Russian airstrike on a prison in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least 17 inmates and wounded more than 80 others. In the Dnipro region, authorities reported at least four people were killed and eight injured. The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. They say 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralized by Ukrainian air defenses.Further attacks hit communities in Synelny and Synelkivskyi with FPV and aerial bombs, killing a 75-year-old woman and injuring two others. Russian forces also targeted the community of Velykomylyk, killing one person and injuring a 68- year-old man and a pregnant woman. The attack comes despite US President Donald Trump’s threat to soon punish Russia with sanctions and tariffs unless it stops.
A Russian airstrike on a prison in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region killed at least 17 inmates and wounded more than 80 others, officials said.
In the Dnipro region, authorities reported at least four people were killed and eight injured.
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3 A view of the penal colony hit by a Russian air strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine on July 29, 2025. via REUTERS
Trump said Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine after three years of war, moving up a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago. The move meant Trump wants peace efforts to make progress by Aug. 7-9.
Trump has repeatedly rebuked Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. But the Kremlin hasn’t changed its tactics.
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“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Trump said during a visit to Scotland.
The Kremlin pushed back, however, with a top Putin lieutenant warned Trump against “playing the ultimatum game with Russia.”
“Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran,” former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy head of the country’s Security Council, wrote on social platform X.
3 Ukrainian servicemen of the 59th brigade mobile air defence unit fire a Soviet made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin autocannon towards a Russian drone from a sunflower field, during an air attack near Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region on July 19, 2025 AFP via Getty Images
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“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Medvedev said.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, the Kremlin has warned Kyiv’s Western backers that their involvement could end up broadening the war to NATO countries.
“Kremlin officials continue to frame Russia as in direct geopolitical confrontation with the West in order to generate domestic support for the war in Ukraine and future Russian aggression against NATO,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late Monday.
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The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles along with 37 Shahed-type strike drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight. They say 32 Shahed drones were intercepted or neutralized by Ukrainian air defenses.
The Russian attack close to midnight Monday hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Facility with four guided aerial bombs, according to the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine.
At least 42 inmates were hospitalized with serious injuries, while another 40 people, including one staff member, sustained various injuries.
3 A Ukrainian serviceman of the 59th brigade mobile air defence unit monitors the sky from a military truck equipped with a Soviet made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin autocannon during a Russian air attack near Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region on July 18, 2025. AFP via Getty Images
The strike destroyed the prison’s dining hall, damaged administrative and quarantine buildings, but the perimeter fence held and no escapes were reported, authorities said.
Ukrainian officials condemned the attack, saying that targeting civilian infrastructure, such as prisons, is a war crime under international conventions.
In Dnipro, missiles hit the city of Kamianske, partially destroying a three-story building and damaging nearby medical facilities including a maternity hospital and a city hospital ward. Two people were killed and five were wounded, including a pregnant woman who is now in a serious condition, according to regional head Serhii Lysak.
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Further Russian attacks hit communities in Synelnykivskyi district with FPV drones and aerial bombs, killing at least one person and injuring two others.
According to Lysak, Russian forces also targeted the community of Velykomykhailivska, killing a 75-year-old woman and injuring a 68-year-old man.
Russian strike on Ukrainian prison kills 17 people and injures more than 80
Four guided aerial bombs hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Colony in Zaporizhzhia. At least 42 inmates were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Another 40 people, including one staff member with a “facial fracture”, were also hurt. In a separate attack in the Dnipro city of Kamianske, two people died and five were injured in a strike on a medical facility. The attacks follow US President Donald Trump setting a new deadline for Russia to make progress towards ending the war. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 22 people had died since the new Trump “ultimatum”
Four guided aerial bombs hit the Bilenkivska Correctional Colony in the country’s ‘s Zaporizhzhia region, according to the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine.
At least 42 inmates were taken to hospital with serious injuries and another 40 people, including one staff member with a “facial fracture”, were also hurt.
The prison dining hall was destroyed and administrative buildings damaged but the fence was unaffected and there were no prisoner escapes, authorities said.
Image: Pic: State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine/Reuters
Ukrainian officials condemned the airstrike, with a statement saying: “This incident is yet another confirmation of the gross violation of international humanitarian law by the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
“Bombardment of civilian infrastructure, in particular penitentiary institutions, is considered a war crime.”
Russian authorities have not commented.
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Image: Pic: State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine/Reuters
In a separate attack in the Dnipro city of Kamianske, two people died and five were injured in a strike on a medical facility. One of the injured was a pregnant woman, who regional chief Serhii Lysak said was in a serious condition.
Another hit on the Velykomykhailivska district killed a 75-year-old woman and 68-year-old man, he added.
The attacks were conducted using two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 37 Shahed-style drones, and a decoy unmanned aerial vehicle, according to Ukraine’s air force.
Thirty-two of the drones were intercepted by Ukrainian air defences, it added.
Image: Workers clear debris after a strike on a hospital in Kamianske, Dnipro. Pic: Reuters
Image: Damage inside the hospital. Pic: Reuters
Trump gives Putin war ultimatum
The attacks follow US President Donald Trump setting a new deadline for Russia to make progress towards ending the war.
Speaking on his trip to Scotland on Monday, Mr Trump said Vladimir Putin has between 10 and 12 days, which is shorter than the 50-day deadline he set two weeks ago.
In response, Kremlin officials warned Mr Trump about “playing the ultimatum game with Russia”.
“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Dmitry Medvedev, head of Russia’s security council, posted on X on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 22 people had died since the new Trump “ultimatum”.
“As of now, it is known that in just one past day – when everyone once again felt a sense of hope that the killing might
stop – the Russian army killed 22 people in Ukraine,” he wrote on X.
“These were conscious, deliberate strikes – not accidental,” he added on Telegram.
Russian strike on Ukraine prison kills 17, Kyiv says
A Russian airstrike on a prison in southeastern Ukraine overnight killed 17 inmates and wounded dozens of others, Kyiv said on Tuesday. “People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection,” he wrote on social media. “The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said. “It was a deliberate strike, not accidental,” he added. “There was no threat that inmates would escape,” he said. “There is no way to predict what will happen in the future,” he said, “because we don’t know.” “It’s like a game of chess,’’ he added, � “you never know what the outcome will be.” “We’re going to find out.’ ”
The strike came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine — now in its fourth year — or face tough new sanctions.
And it also comes on the three-year anniversary of a strike on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers.
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“It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility,” Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said, reacting on social media.
Russia carried out eight strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region overnight, hitting the prison, according to Ivan Fedorov, the head of the military administration.
Ukraine’s justice ministry said Moscow’s forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, killing 17 inmates and wounding another 42, including one of the detention centre’s employees.
Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility’s perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added.
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Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region’s emergency services.
– ‘War crimes’ –
A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility, where 30 people worked.The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets meanwhile said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian “war crimes.”
“People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection,” he wrote on social media.
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In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones only.
People were also killed and more wounded in attacks on the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to regional government officials.
A missile strike on the town of Kamyanske killed two people, wounded five and damaged a hospital, Sergiy Lysak, head of the regional military administration said on Telegram.
Another person was killed and several wounded in an attack on the region’s Synelnykivsky district, he said.
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In a separate attack on Velykomykhaylivska, Monday night, a “75-year-old woman was killed. A 68-year-old man was wounded. A private house was damaged,” he posted on Telegram.
In southern Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region’s acting governor said Tuesday.
“A car was damaged on Ostrovsky Street. Unfortunately, the driver who was in it died,” Yuri Slyusar, acting governor of the Rostov region, said in a post on Telegram.
Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia’s summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022.
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Over the weekend, the Russian army said its forces had captured a small settlement in the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region, weeks after it seized the first village in the territory.
Kyiv has contested those claimed Russian advances.
Both Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia.
Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility.
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Russian strikes on Ukraine kill dozens, despite Trump push for ceasefire
Russian forces strike a correctional colony in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, killing 17 inmates. The strike “completely destroyed’ the colony’s dining room and “significantly damaged” its administrative headquarters and quarantine station. The strikes also targeted the city of Kamianske in Ukraine’S Dnipropetrovsk region, striking a maternity hospital and city hospital department. Three people were killed, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman named Diana, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He said the overnight strikes killed a total of 22 people. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian officials had “taken note of President Trump” but that the “special military operation continues.
“This attack once again demonstrates a gross violation of international humanitarian law by the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said. “The shelling of civilian infrastructure, in particular penitentiary institutions, is considered a war crime.”
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The strikes — the latest in Moscow’s nightly aerial campaign against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure — also targeted the city of Kamianske in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, striking a maternity hospital and city hospital department, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement Tuesday.
Three people were killed, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman named Diana, he said, calling the attack “deliberate, targeted, and far from accidental strike.” He said the overnight strikes killed a total of 22 people.
On Tuesday morning, authorities in the northern city of Kharkiv also reported that rockets fired on a nearby village killed another five civilians.
Earlier Monday, Trump said he was “disappointed” that Russian President Vladimir Putin had failed to introduce a ceasefire. Shortly thereafter, Trump said that he would impose sanctions on Russia within 10 to 12 days if the situation did not change, moving up a previous deadline set for early September.
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In his statement, Zelensky said Trump “delivered very important words about how Russia’s leadership is wasting the world’s time, talking about peace while continuing to kill people.”
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He added: “When everyone once again felt a glimmer of hope for an end to the killings, the Russian army killed 22 people in Ukraine.”
Russian officials have rejected Trump’s demands. On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian officials had “taken note of President Trump’s statements” but that the “special military operation continues,” using the Russian description of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began more than three years ago.
On Monday, former president Dmitry Medvedev, who now sits on Russia’s Security Council, said, “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step toward war.”
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Peskov also rejected Ukrainian accusations that Russia had targeted civilians in the penal colony in Zaporizhzhia.
“The Russian army does not strike civilian targets,” he said. “The strikes are carried out on military and near-military infrastructure.”
Russian forces have sharply increased their strikes against Ukraine’s cities since the beginning of June, using a combination of guided and ballistic missiles and self-detonating drones, resulting in a surge in civilian casualties.