The attack on the apartment building in Dnipro, one of the bloodiest bombings in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, killed 45 people. Among the victims were 6 children, the youngest was 11 months old. The Ukrainian emergency services announced in the afternoon that the search for survivors was over. “The rescue operations lasted 69 hours: 39 people were rescued, including 6 children. 79 were injured, including 16 minors. Of these, 28 were hospitalized, 10 are in serious condition,” Councilor of the Ukrainian Presidency Kyrylo Timochenko said on Telegram.
In response to the “war” the West has been waging against Russia, Moscow has decided to strengthen its armed forces, including by increasing personnel by a third, which will reach 1.5 million by 2026, according to Kremlin spokesmen Dmitry Peskov , confirm that the new era of tension and hostilities in Europe will be long-lasting, even beyond the conflict in Ukraine, which has so far claimed more than 7,000 civilian lives, according to the UN. On the other hand, pledges to support Kyiv to the bitter end are renewed. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced among other things that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would travel to Kyiv “soon” and welcomed his support for Ukraine. “We are very much waiting for Giorgia,” said Zelenskyy, who was interviewed in Kyiv by Bruno Vespa, noting that before he took office at Palazzo Chigi, “there was information that this government would be more pro-Russian” than Mario Draghi’s . “Instead – he added – today I see Giorgia as pro-Italian and that is the most important thing: that she is pro-Italian and supports Ukraine. It will come soon, I can’t give the date, but soon…” . “I can assure you that Europe will always be with you,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the day the Union issued the first €3 billion check to support Kiev’s economy Total package of 18 billion expected in 2023. When it comes to military aid, Germany, too, which has so far been reluctant to supply tanks, has ensured that it will remain “firmly with” the Kiev government, as promised by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a video call with Zelensky. While Holland will send the patriot and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi had a first face-to-face meeting with US Army Chief of Staff Mike Milley in Poland. All this, for the Kremlin, is confirmation that the West is at war with Russia, through “indirect involvement in military activities” in Ukraine, but also through hostile activities in the economic, financial and legal spheres. Hence, spokesman Peskov explained, the decision to strengthen the defense. Russia is therefore preparing for a multi-year confrontation with the West, having weathered what Putin described as “a very difficult year” in 2022. Among other things, in response to the European Union’s ninth package of sanctions, Moscow has expanded the blacklist of EU officials banned from entering Russia, including several members of the European Parliament. And Putin himself submitted a bill to the Duma to terminate the Council of Europe’s international treaties relating to Russia, which left that organization in March last year. On the ground, the most intense fighting remains concentrated in the eastern province of Donetsk, while local pro-Russian authorities denounce the killing of two people and wounding of three others, including a child, in shelling by Ukrainian forces on Kakhovka, in the Moscow-controlled part of the Kherson region. Meanwhile, 25 people are still missing in the Russian rocket attack on a residential area of Dnipro last Saturday that killed at least 44, according to the mayor. Rescue workers said they found the body of a child in the rubble this morning. Meanwhile, Oleksiy Arestovich, one of the advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who suffered severe attacks for saying in an interview that the Russian missile fell on the apartment building because it was deflected by a defense missile, resigned be systems Ukrainians. Exactly the same thesis supported by the Kremlin yesterday.