Rescue Hopes Fade Following Russian Attack on Dnipro

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DNIPRO — Ukraine saw little hope of pulling any more survivors from the rubble of an apartment block in the city of Dnipro on Sunday, a day after the building was hit during a major Russian missile attack, with dozens of people expected to have died.

Volodymyr Zeleskiy stated that one child was among 25 people who had been confirmed dead. 73 people were injured, 13 of them children. On the Telegram messaging platform, he stated that thirty-nine people had been saved and another 43 were missing.

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Emergency workers claimed that they heard screaming from people hiding under debris from the nine-story block of apartments in the east-central area. They used moments of silence to direct their efforts. Freezing temperatures added to rescuers’ concerns.

A group of firefighters discovered a woman in a light-dressed condition that was still breathing 18 hours after the attack. They carried her safely in their arms. Numerous grim-faced, young and old residents watched horror from the streets.

An earlier body was retrieved by firefighters, and then lifted from the rubble using a crane.

“The chances of saving people now are minimal,” Dnipro’s Mayor Borys Filatov told Reuters. I think the number of dead will be in the dozens.”

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Ukraine’s Air Force said the apartment block was struck by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which is known to be inaccurate and that Ukraine lacks the air defenses to shoot down. The Soviet-era missile was created during the Cold War to destroy warships.

Filatov claimed that two stairwells, including dozens of flats, were destroyed.

Russia launched two missiles at Ukraine Saturday as fighting raged in the east towns of Bakhmut, Soledar, and Soledar.

Moscow, which invaded last February, has been pounding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing sweeping blackouts and disruptions to central heating and running water.

Dnipro was not mentioned by the Russian defense ministry in its Sunday statement regarding its previous day’s strikes.

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“All assigned objects were hit. The targets of the strike have been achieved,” It was.

Searchers for survivors worked tirelessly through the night. On Sunday morning they were seen digging through mounds of smashed concrete, twisted metal and punching and kickin’.

“Two rooms on the second floor remain practically intact but buried,” Oleh Kushniruk, a deputy director of the regional branch of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, said on television.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern command said Russia had fired only half of the cruise missiles it had deployed to the Black Sea during Saturday’s attacks.

“This indicates that they still have certain plans,” Natalia Humeniuk, the spokesperson, stated this. “We must understand that they can still be used.”

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CONTACT US FOR MORE WEAPONS

Zelenskiy, in his nightly address following the strike, called on Western allies for more weapons. “Russian terror” Attacks on civilian targets

Saturday’s attack came as Western powers consider sending battle tanks to Kyiv and ahead of a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in Ramstein in Germany next Friday, where governments will announce their latest pledges of military support.

Britain promised to send more weapons in its promise to follow France and Poland on Saturday. It said it would send 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks, as well as additional artillery support, over the next few weeks.

Moscow will likely view the first shipment of Western-made tanks to Ukraine as an escalation in the conflict. According to the Russian Embassy in London, the tanks will prolong the conflict.

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Russia’s invasion has already killed thousands, displaced millions and turned many cities into rubble.

SOLEDAR

In Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region – the focal point of Russia’s drive to capture more territory – Ukraine’s forces were battling around the small salt-mining town of Soledar.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern command, told Ukrainian television that Russian forces had shelled the area around Soledar and Bakhmut 234 times in the past 24 hours.

Russia announced Friday that it had taken Soledar from its enemies. The city had a population of 10,000 before the war. Although this would only be a small advance, it would have psychological significance for Russian forces who have suffered months of defeats on the battlefield.

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While Ukraine maintained that it was fighting for the city, officials acknowledged that the situation was complicated due to street fighting and Russian forces coming from different directions.

“Our soldiers are constantly repelling enemy attacks, day and night,” Hanna Maliar, Deputy Defence Minister, stated Saturday. “The enemy is sustaining heavy losses but is continuing to carry out the criminal orders of their command.”

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War stated that it was unlikely that Ukrainian forces held any positions within Soledar.

Reuters couldn’t immediately confirm the situation in the village.

Putin claimed that what he called the special military operation was showing positive trends and that he hoped Russian Soldiers would bring further benefits after Soledar.

“The dynamic is positive,” Rossiya 1 state TV was informed by him. “Everything is developing within the framework of the plan of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff.”

(Additional reporting from Lidia Kelly and Dan Peleschuk. Written by Lidia and Dan Kelly, Raissa Kasolowsky, Tom Balmforth. Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Frances Kerry. Philippa Fletcher.