LAST UPDATE | 15 Jan 2023

THE DEATH TOLL from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the south-eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 29, officials reported, as rescue workers scrambled to pull survivors from the rubble.

Emergency crews worked through the night amid freezing temperatures at the multi-storey residential building, the site of the worst casualties from a widespread Russian barrage yesterday.

The attacks also targeted the capital, Kyiv, and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, ending a two-week lull in Moscow’s strikes on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and urban centres.

Russia fired 33 cruise missiles yesterday, of which 21 were shot down, according to General Valeriy Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Emergency workers carry a wounded woman after a Russian rocket hit a building in Dnipro Yevhenii Zavhorodnii / AP Yevhenii Zavhorodnii / AP / AP

The missile that hit the apartment building was a Kh-22 launched from Russia’s Kursk region, according to the military’s air force command.

In Dnipro, workers used a crane as they tried to rescue people trapped on upper floors of the apartment tower where about 1,700 were living. Some residents signalled for help with lights on their mobile phones.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that at least 73 people were wounded and 39 people had been rescued as of this afternoon. The city government in Dnipro said 43 people were reported missing.

“Search and rescue operations and the dismantling of dangerous structural elements continues. Around the clock. We continue to fight for every life,” the Ukrainian leader said.

Ivan Garnuk was in his apartment when the building was hit and said he felt lucky to have survived. He described his shock that the Russians would strike a residential building with no strategic value.

“There are no military facilities here. There is nothing here,” he said. “There is no air defence, there are no military bases here. It just hit civilians, innocent people.”

Emergency workers watch their colleagues clear the rubble Evgeniy Maloletka / AP Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / AP

Dnipro residents joined rescue workers at the scene to help clear the rubble. Others brought food and warm clothes for those who had lost their homes.

“This is clearly terrorism and all this is simply not human,” one local, Artem Myzychenko, said as he cleared rubble.

Claiming responsibility for the missile strikes across Ukraine, Russia’s Defence Ministry said that it achieved its goal.

Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a building in Dnipro Evgeniy Maloletka / AP Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / AP

“All designated targets have been hit. The goal of the attack has been achieved,” a ministry statement posted on Telegram said.

It said missiles were fired “on the military command and control system of Ukraine and related energy facilities”, and did not mention the attack on the Dnipro residential building.

– © AFP 2023