Russian invaders fired nine missiles at the infrastructure of Zaporizhzhia on the morning of September 22. One of them fell near the TV tower in the city’s center. Head of the Zaporizhia Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Starukh reported this on his Telegram channel.

Currently, it is known that it is not the TV tower itself, but the area around it that was damaged. However, the TV center where the editorial office of Suspilne Zaporizhzhia is located has been damaged: its windows were blown out. As Natalia Andreyeva, head of Suspilne Zaporizhzhia, told the regional IMI representative in Zaporizhzhia oblast, the TV channel’s editorial team is currently working remotely.

According to Oleksandr Starukh, the attempted attack on the TV tower is part of a special information operation which the invaders call a “referendum” and which they plan to hold on September 23. In his opinion, in this way, the occupiers are trying to permanently disable the signal of Ukrainian broadcasters on the territory of Zaporizhzhia oblast.

After the shelling, there were problems with TV broadcasting in the city.

In addition, as reported by Suspilne’s corporate website, the premises of Suspilne’s Zaporizhzhia branch suffered some damage as a result of a Russian rocket attack on Zaporizhzhia on September 22.

The damage is not severe. The windows, TV broadcasting network objects and cars that were on the TRC’s territory were damaged. None of the branch’s employees were injured.

Suspilne Zaporizhzhia’s administration and National Police officers have recorded the scope of destruction, and a criminal case has been opened.

The broadcast of the Pershyi, Suspilne Zaporizhzhia, and the Ukrainian Radio channels was not interrupted. The Suspilne Kultura TV channel was unavailable on September 22 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:05 p.m., Radio Kultura and Radio Promin – from 8:30 a.m. to 9:05 a.m.

As IMI reported, the Melitopol city TV tower and radio communication towers were taken over by Russian forces in March. Ukrainian broadcasting has been fully disabled in the temporarily occupied territories and replaced with Russian propaganda and reopened local TV channels.