The death toll from a Russian missile attack that hit a nine-story residential building in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine, has risen to 21, with another 73 people injured and 35 missing, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.
“There are 21 dead, including a child,” wrote the president of the regional council of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Mykola Lukashuk, in a message on the Telegram social network, quoted by the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
According to the official’s account, 73 people were injured, including 14 children, and 38 people were rescued, including six minors.
Mykola Lukashuk also reported that 35 are missing.
In a previous message, the chairman of the regional council of the Dnipropetrovsk region recalled that the missile hit destroyed 72 apartments and damaged more than 230.
According to the same source, 3,450 tons of structures were destroyed and 39 vehicles were damaged.
The Ukrainian authorities admit that the residents of the 236 apartments, which corresponds to more than 400 people, will have to be rehoused.
In the Russian attack that took place on Saturday afternoon, the building was hit by a Kh-22 missile, designed to destroy aircraft carrier groups at sea.
The Dnipro city authorities declared three days of mourning.
Last night, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army said that Russia “carried out three air strikes and about 50 missile strikes during the day” on Saturday.
“In addition, the occupiers launched 50 attacks with multiple rocket launchers,” he added.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko also announced on Saturday on the Facebook social network that power cuts were ordered in most regions of the country following the Russian attacks.
The Russian attacks came shortly after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak telephoned his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to announce that Britain would be the first Western power to send frontline tanks to kyiv.
This despite fears within NATO that Russia may view this decision as an escalation of the war.
The military offensive launched by Russia against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 was condemned by the broader international community, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and political and economic sanctions on Moscow.
The Russian invasion has caused, so far, the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.9 million to European countries-, according to the most recent data from the United Nations, which lists this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).
The United Nations considers 6,952 civilians dead and 11,144 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
*News updated at 9:56 am
Source: TSF
