Dozens dead after Russian missile strike on apartment

Rescue ongoing with minimal’ chance of finding survivors

- JOE MIDDLETON

The death toll from a Russian missile strike that hit an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday has risen to 30. President Volodymyr Zelensky said a child was among the people confirmed dead so far and that 73 people had

been wounded, including 13 children. Thirty-nine people had been rescued by Ukrainian authorities he said on the Telegram messaging app. Between 30 to 40 people could still be trapped under debris, officials said.

Emergency workers said they had heard people screaming for help from underneath piles of debris from the nine-storey apartment block in the east-central city, with freezing temperatures adding to rescuers’ concerns. The chances of saving people now are minimal,” said Dnipro’s mayor Borys Filatov. I think the number of dead will be in the dozens.”

Ukraine’s air force said the apartment block was struck by a Russian Kh-22 missile, a Soviet-era projectile that was developed during the Cold War to destroy warships. Russia fired two waves of missiles at Ukraine on Saturday, striking targets across the country as fighting raged on the battlefield in the eastern towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.