At least 32 people were injured in a Russian attack in southern Ukraine

Russian air strikes on and around the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia injured at least 32 people on Wednesday, local authorities said.

Regional military administration chief Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that all the wounded were from the city and nearby areas.

Earlier, rescue services reported a provisional toll of 30 injured, including five children, after strikes hit an apartment block, a house and an educational institution.

AFP reporters at the scene saw firefighters battling flames in a multi-storey residential building, with thick black smoke rising into the air.

Fedorov added that two more people were injured when a Russian drone struck a civilian car in Kushuhum, south of Zaporizhzhia.

The industrial city, which had a pre-war population of about 710,000, lies roughly 27 kilometres (17 miles) from the front line and has been repeatedly targeted since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow claimed in late 2022 that it had annexed the broader Zaporizhzhia region, along with three other eastern and southern Ukrainian regions.

The strikes came as the United States presses Ukraine to accept peace terms aimed at ending the war — proposals critics say would benefit the Kremlin.