Death toll rises after Russian attack rips apart apartments
Rescuers on Sunday continued to comb the rubble of a nine-story apartment building that was cut in half by a Russian strike, as the death toll from the attack in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro a day earlier climbed to 30.
It was one of the largest losses of civilian lives far from the front line since the beginning of the war.
At least one woman was pulled safely from the debris. The 27-yearold woman was taken to a hospital where she was being treated for severe hypothermia, local officials said.
The residential building was struck late Saturday afternoon as Russia launched dozens of missiles at cities across Ukraine in two waves of strikes that coincided with the Orthodox New Year and shattered the relative calm of recent days.
At least 75 people were injured, and more than 30 people were still believed to be missing, local officials said.
The strike on the apartment building is one of a series of devastating largescale attacks on residential areas of Ukraine since Russia launched its fullscale invasion Feb. 24.
Russian strikes on targets such as train stations, theaters, shopping malls and residential neighborhoods have led to significant loss of civilian life, while the shelling of cities and towns near the front line has also caused a mounting civilian death toll.
Under international law, it is a war crime to deliberately or recklessly attack civilian populations and places where civilians would be likely to congregate.
On Sunday morning, five victims who had been pulled from the rubble in Dnipro were laid out in body bags in a small grassy area next to the destroyed building. A light dusting of snow began to accumulate on them as the hours went by and recovery efforts continued.
At least 400 people lived in the large apartment building and the immediate area around it, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, and 72 apartments were destroyed in the attack. The explosion also shattered the windows of surrounding buildings, leaving many more people displaced.
Images of the devastation provoked anger and despair around the country, with one photo from the scene striking a particular chord. It shows a woman clutching a stuffed animal and a golden Christmas garland as she stood in the ruins of the building, waiting to be rescued.
In a post on Instagram, the woman, who gave her name as Anastasiia Shvets, said her parents were still missing. She described how she had escaped unharmed except for a small head wound and bruises on her legs.
“I have no words, I have no emotions, I feel nothing except a great emptiness inside,” she wrote, sharing images from her hospital bed.