Russian missile strike on apartment building in Dnipro kills 40, 29 people still missing
The death toll from Saturday’s Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro rose to 40 as of Monday afternoon. Three of the victims are children. Seventy-six more people were injured, including 14 minors.
Twenty-nine people remained missing Monday. A total of 46 people were reported as missing, of which 17 were found, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said.
As of Monday evening, rescue efforts continued. A chinchilla in a cage was found in the rubble, deputy mayor of Dnipro Mykhailo Lysenko said.
“A sad resident of the building no.118 of the condo Peremoha was rescued,” Lysenko said on Facebook. His post on social media helped find the owner – Iryna Spesyvtseva from the apartment no.35.
Ukraine has identified the Russian service members involved in the deadly strike.
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said that Ukraine’s law enforcement identified the Russian military commanders that gave an order to carry out a strike on the building in Dnipro. The same type of a missile had been used in previous Russian attacks on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk and an apartment building in Serhiyivka.
The building was hit by a Russian Kh-22 supersonic anti-ship cruise missile. Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk said that the Ukrainian military has no system capable of intercepting and downing this type of missiles.
There are no military sites around, Kostin said, drawing parallels with the strikes on Kremenchuk and Serhiyivka. Dnipro is located far from the frontline, he added.
“The aggressor state is deliberately destroying Ukrainians,” the Prosecutor General said.
Ukraine’s Security Service started a proceeding pursuant to Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violations of the laws or customs of war).
Russia not in full control of Soledar
Russia has not taken full control of the city. The Ukrainian troops practice two main tasks in Soledar, spokesperson for the Eastern Military Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Serhiy Cherevatyi said on television.
As of Monday evening, Soledar was not under Russian control, Cherevatyi said. The Ukrainian Armed Forces in Soledar have two main tasks, he added. “The first one is not to let the enemy break through the defense line and make an incursion into the rear area to expand the occupation of our land. The second one is to destroy the [Russian] troops and equipment to reduce their offensive potential,” the spokesperson said. The Ukrainian troops have been practicing the tasks in Donbas for months. They have been inflicting massive losses on the Russians while preventing the hostile force from making a strategic advance.
“Our troops are fighting and inflicting losses on the enemy. They are demonstrating every day that the city is holding out. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are making the enemy pay the ultimate price for every meter where it tries to advance,” Cherevatyi said.
Putin seen preparing for long war, Ukraine’s defense intelligence says
Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing for a long war of attrition as he realized that he would not be able to quickly seize control of Ukraine, the press office of the Main Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said.
Initially, Putin did not plan for a long-lasting war, but the events of recent months demonstrate the need to prepare Russia for a protracted war, representative of Ukraine’s defense intelligence Andriy Yusov said.
Ukraine has an opposite task, he said, — to make 2023 a victorious year, as “neither Ukraine, nor the civilized world wants a long war.”
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