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Russian strikes hit civilians in Zaporizhzhia and Kupiansk
Summary
A look back at two linked developments on 10 August 2023: a missile strike on a hotel and an evacuation order in Kharkiv Oblast.
What did the Russian attacks on civilian areas look like on 10 August 2023? Two developments, one in the south-east and one in the north-east, showed the pattern.
In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian Iskander missile struck a hotel. At least one person was killed and 14 others were injured. The strike came a day after another Russian missile hit a residential area of the same city on 9 August 2023, killing at least two people and injuring seven. Taken together, the two strikes within 24 hours left at least three people dead and 21 injured, on the figures reported at the time.
In the north-east, the Kupiansk city military administration said it would begin evacuating civilians from the Kupiansk Raion of Kharkiv Oblast. The stated reason was intense Russian shelling.
What the two events show
The events were in different regions and involved different means: a missile strike on a city in one case, sustained shelling of a district in the other. Both, however, fell on civilians and civilian infrastructure. In Zaporizhzhia the targets were a residential area and then a hotel. In Kupiansk Raion the shelling was severe enough that local authorities moved to take residents out.
The casualty figures in Zaporizhzhia were given as minimums, so the final tolls may have differed. The scale of the Kupiansk evacuation was not specified in the report of the announcement.
For international readers, the date is a snapshot of how the war affected people far from the front line in the city of Zaporizhzhia, and how it forced civilians to leave their homes closer to it in Kharkiv Oblast.
