- At least 25 confirmed dead after Saturday’s Russian attack
- The city’s mayor says there is little hope of finding any more survivors
- The military says Russia has more cruise missiles on hand
DNIPRO, Ukraine, Jan 15 (Portal) – Ukraine saw little hope of pulling more survivors from the rubble of a block of flats in the city of Dnipro on Sunday, a day after the building was hit by dozens in a large Russian missile attack People expected to have died.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said one child was among 25 people confirmed dead so far and 73 people were injured, including 13 children. 39 people have been rescued but another 43 are missing, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Rescuers said they heard people screaming for help beneath piles of rubble at the nine-story apartment block in the east downtown and used moments of silence to direct their efforts. Freezing temperatures increased rescuers’ concerns.
A group of firefighters found a scantily clad woman alive more than 18 hours after the attack. They carried her to safety in their arms. Dozens of grim-faced residents, young and old, watched in horror from the street.
A body had previously been recovered by firefighters and lifted from the ruins by crane on a stretcher.
“The chances of saving people are now minimal,” Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov told Portal. I think the death toll will be in the dozens.”
Ukraine’s Air Force said the block of flats was hit by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which is known to be inaccurate and Ukraine lacks the air defenses to shoot down. The Soviet-era missile was developed during the Cold War to destroy warships.
Filatov said two stairwells containing dozens of apartments were destroyed.
Russia fired two waves of missiles at Ukraine on Saturday, hitting targets across the country as fighting raged on battlefields in the eastern cities of Soledar and Bakhmut.
Moscow, which invaded last February, has been bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing widespread power outages and disruptions to central heating and running water.
In a statement on Sunday about the previous day of the strike, the Russian Defense Ministry did not mention Dnipro as a specific target.
“All assigned objects have been hit. The goals of the strike have been achieved,” it said.
Rescuers searched for survivors all night. On Sunday morning, they could be seen punching and kicking through piled mounds of shattered concrete and twisted metal.
“Two rooms on the second floor are practically intact but buried,” Oleh Kuzhniruk, deputy director of the regional branch of Ukraine’s state emergency service, said on TV.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Southern Command said Russia fired only half of the cruise missiles it had deployed at the Black Sea during Saturday’s attacks.
“This indicates that they still have certain plans,” spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk said. “We have to understand that they can still be used.”
CALL FOR MORE WEAPONS
In his late-night speech after the strike, Zelenskyy called on Western allies to supply more arms to end “Russian terror” and attacks on civilian targets.
Saturday’s attack came as western powers are considering sending main battle tanks to Kyiv and ahead of a meeting of Ukraine’s allies next Friday in Germany’s Ramstein, where the governments will announce their latest pledges of military support.
On Saturday, Britain followed France and Poland in promises of more weapons, saying it would send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks in the coming weeks, along with other advanced artillery support.
The first deployment of Western tanks in Ukraine is likely to be viewed by Moscow as an escalation of the conflict. The Russian embassy in London said the tanks would prolong the confrontation.
Russia’s invasion has already killed thousands, displaced millions and reduced many cities to rubble.
SOLEDAR
In Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region — the focus of Russia’s push for more territory — Ukrainian forces fought over the small salt-mining town of Soledar.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s Eastern Command, told Ukrainian TV that Russian forces had shelled the area around Soledar and Bakhmut 234 times in the past 24 hours.
Russia said on Friday that its forces had taken control of Soledar, which had a pre-war population of 10,000, in a minor step forward but one that would have psychological implications for Russian forces, which have endured months of battlefield setbacks.
Ukraine on Saturday insisted its forces were fighting to hold the city, but officials conceded the situation was difficult as street fighting raged and Russian forces were advancing from different directions.
“Our soldiers are constantly repelling enemy attacks, day and night,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Saturday. “The enemy is suffering heavy casualties, but continues to carry out the criminal orders of his command.”
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said it was highly unlikely Ukrainian forces still held positions within Soledar itself.
Portal could not immediately check the situation in the city.
Putin said what he calls the special military operation shows a positive trend and he hopes Russian soldiers will continue to make gains after Soledar.
“The dynamics are positive,” he told state television Rossiya 1. “Everything is developing within the framework of the plan of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff.”
Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly and Dan Peleschuk Writing by Lidia Kelly, Dan Peleschuk, Raissa Kasolowsky and Tom Balmforth Editing by William Mallard, Edwina Gibbs, Frances Kerry, Philippa Fletcher
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