Day 219 Roundup: Attack in Zaporizhzhia Kills 25; Putin Announces Annexation of Four Regions

The Facts

• As Russian Pres. Putin announced the annexation of four regions in Ukraine on Friday, an earlier attack on the Zaporizhzhia region – one of the territories being annexed alongside Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson – left at least 25 civilians dead and injured as many as 50.

• Ukrainian officials, including the governor for the Zaporizhzhia region Oleksandr Starukh and Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, alleged Russia was responsible for the attack. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an adviser to Zelenskyy, alleged 16 S-300 surface-to-air missiles were fired, four of which struck near a convoy of civilian cars that were "on their way to the temporarily occupied territory to pick up their relatives."

• Meanwhile, Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-appointed official in Zaporizhzhia, alleged that Ukrainian armed forces were responsible, claiming the convoy had formed in protest of a Ukrainian checkpoint that barred civilians from leaving for Russia-controlled territories and that they were subject to reprisals. Neither claim could be independently confirmed, but images from the scene suggest the use of small arms and artillery in addition to the possible use of missiles.