March 22, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

At least one person was killed and 32 others were injured by missile strikes in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Wednesday.

“As of now, 32 people have been injured as a result of an enemy missile attack between two nine-story buildings: 27 people have been hospitalized, including 3 children,” it said. “5 people were treated on the spot. One person died.”

According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, Russian forces fired at least six missiles at Zaporizhzhia.

The type of missiles that were used are "currently being established," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The prosecutor’s office went on to say the missiles had caused significant damage to civilian infrastructure and some people are still missing.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian official and adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the strikes deliberately targeted civilians.

“Zaporizhzhia. Today. A specific deliberate strike at a residential building. To kill civilians. No 'military' nearby,” Podolyak posted on Telegram Wednesday. “Once again, the obvious. 'Russian world' came to kill – plain brazenly." 

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said rescue operations are still underway.

Moscow and Washington currently have no common ground on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday in remarks at the Valdai Forum, according to state outlet RIA Novosti.

“There is simply no common ground here. I don’t think that there are any grounds now for discussing the New START issue with the United States,” Ryabkov said of the agreement.

According to Ryabkov, Russia cannot even consider notifications from the American side under the treaty, because from a formal point of view, the contract has been suspended.

“This would be a violation of federal law on our part," he said.

Ryabkov added that Moscow’s condition for returning to START discussions is “a change in the US hostile course towards Russia."

The American counterparts have to “accept the reality for what it is," he added.

Some more context: Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was suspending his country's participation in the nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, imperiling the last remaining pact that regulates the world's two largest nuclear arsenals.

Putin made the declaration in his much-delayed annual state of the nation address to Russia's National Assembly. Hours after Putin's speech, Russia's Foreign Ministry said the decision to suspend participation in the treaty was "reversible."

The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides would soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement.

Rescuers in Zaporizhzhia are searching for survivors after Russian forces fired at least six missiles at the eastern Ukrainian city, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The officials added that the missiles caused extensive damage to residential high-rise buildings.

“One of the missiles hit between two high-rise 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, cars and other civilian infrastructure in the city."

Here are some photos showing the aftermath of Russia's latest round of missile strikes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

CNN's Svitlana Vlasova and Olga Voitovych in Kyiv contributed to this post.

Moscow will not leave unanswered the UK's intention to supply Ukraine with shells that include depleted uranium, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Violating the fundamental norms of international law, London must not forget that it will have to bear full responsibility for this," the statement added.

On Tuesday, the UK defense minister said Russia is “deliberately trying to disinform” since depleted uranium "is a standard component" for shells and has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. The comment from the ministry came after Putin warned the UK against supplying the ammunition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the UK's shipment of depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine would be a step toward further escalation of the conflict. 

Some background: According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, depleted uranium is used in ammunition designed to pierce armor plating because it becomes sharper on impact with a target.

It is “considerably less radioactive than natural uranium,” according to the agency.

CNN's Jessie Gretener, Darya Tarasova and Jack Guy contributed to this post.

A missile strike on a residential building in Zaporizhzhia has killed at least one and left 25 people in the hospital, Anatolii Kurtiev, acting mayor of the city of Zaporizhzhia, said.

Earlier, the region's military administration said two Russian missiles hit a residential high-rise building in city Zaporizhzhia. Footage posted to social media Wednesday shows extensive damage and a fire at a residential block in Zaporizhzhia, apparently from a missile strike.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted about the attack on the social media app Telegram, saying Russia was "shelling the city with bestial savagery."

Chinese leader Xi Jinping departed Moscow after a three-day visit, attacks on one Donetsk town are intensifying and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is visiting troops on the front lines.

Here's what happening:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a surprise visit to wounded troops at a hospital in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine near the front lines.

Among the wounded Ukrainian servicemen were some of the defenders of Bakhmut, according to a statement from the Presidency.

According to video released by the President's office, Zelensky said from a warehouse at an undisclosed location that he was "honored to be here today, in the east of our country, in Donbas, and to award our heroes, to thank you, to shake hands. Thank you for protecting the state, sovereignty, the east of Ukraine."

Two Russian missiles hit a residential high-rise building in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, the region's military administration said.

It's unclear if there were any casualties.

Footage posted to social media Wednesday shows extensive damage and a fire at a residential block in Zaporizhzhia, apparently from a missile strike.

One video showed the moment of impact, several floors up. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted about the attack on the social media app Telegram, saying Russia was "shelling the city with bestial savagery."

"Residential areas where ordinary people and children live are being fired at," Zelensky said.

The town of Avdiivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk is coming under heavy attacks by Russian artillery and rocket systems, according to the head of the local military administration.

Avdiivka, a town with a large smelting plant just north of Donetsk, has been shelled persistently since the Russian invasion began. However, in recent weeks Russian ground attacks in the area have intensified.

Some Ukrainian officials have said that the town could become a second Bakhmut, the mostly abandoned city where Ukrainian and Russian forces have fought for weeks to what is, at this moment, a bloody stalemate.

Local official Vitalii Barabash told CNN that "the situation is really changing."

Fighting along the city's outskirts: Barabash said there had been massive shelling of the central part of the town late Tuesday. The rest of the night, he said, was "relatively calm."

However, the defense line around the city was "shelled all night."

"There was heavy shelling, and small arms fighting was going on in all directions, from the south and the north."

Geolocated social media videos over the past week indicate that Russian forces have moved closer to access routes from Avdiivka to the north and west. 

Barabash said that on Wednesday morning there were more shelling and artillery attacks, killing one woman.

Evacuation difficulties: Civilian evacuations are continuing but the way out of town is a "road of death," with the stretch of road monitored by Russian troops who "immediately open fire" Barabash said.

He added that 180 people left the town in the last three weeks and Ukrainian officials estimate that there are some 2,000 people left in Avdiivka. Among them, according to Barabash, are six children. One child evacuated Tuesday, and authorities plan to evacuate another one on Wednesday.