In the evening of September 17, Russian military carried out yet another massive strike on Zaporizhzhia, as a result of which civilian enterprises, shopping centers, bus stops, and passenger buses themselves came under fire. This was reported by Mikhail Semikin, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, in his Telegram channel. According to him, by evening the enemy struck a supermarket on the right bank of the city, where a large-scale fire broke out. At the time of the initial statement's publication, no official information on casualties had been received.
The 'Amstor' shopping center came under attack
Ivan Fedorov, co-chairman of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council of Defense, also confirmed the attack on the shopping center. Judging by the published photographs, it was the 'Amstor' shopping center that came under attack. According to subsequent data, around 10,000 square meters of area was engulfed in flames, and a number of reports use the wording that the building burned almost to the ground. For the residential district where the facility is located, this is, according to local residents and officials, a genuine tragedy.
A series of attacks in a single day
The attack on the shopping center was part of a whole series of strikes on the city over the course of a day. During the day, the Russians attacked a passenger bus in the Kosmicheskyy district of Zaporizhzhia with an FPV drone — as a result, people were injured. On the morning of September 17, a new strike was delivered on the 'Zaporizhstal' enterprise: production facilities and the plant's infrastructure were damaged. Thus, in a single day, industry, civilian infrastructure, and transport all came under fire.
A call not to panic
Commenting on the strike on the supermarket, Mikhail Semikin ironically noted that the enemy is 'destroying the assortment of buckwheat and salt,' and called on residents not to panic and not to buy food in industrial quantities. At the same time, he emphasized that the targets of the attacks are civilian enterprises and objects of everyday life, which indicates a deliberate impact on the daily lives of the population.
Contradictory data
In the initial statements, authorities indicated that 'information on casualties had not yet been received' in connection with the strike on the shopping center. However, on the same day there were reports of casualties resulting from an FPV drone attack on a passenger bus in the Kosmicheskyy district, meaning that human casualties and the injured in the city have been recorded, but their connection to a specific object (the shopping center or the bus) is described differently in various reports. In addition, there is a discrepancy in the description of the damage to the 'Amstor' shopping center: some sources speak of a 'large-scale fire' at the moment of the strike, while others say that the building 'burned to the ground' over an area of about 10,000 square meters. These wordings reflect different stages of the unfolding events — from the moment of impact to the assessment of the final destruction.
