At least 29 people died after an apartment block in the Ukrainian city was struck by a Russian missile.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe mayor of Dnipro has warned there may be no further survivors after Saturday’s Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the eastern Ukrainian city.
The attack left 25 dead while a further 43 are missing, city officials said.
Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov said there was “minimal” chance of finding anyone else alive.
Speaking to state TV in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that military operations were going to plan.
Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa were also hit on Saturday in attacks which Moscow said were targeted at Ukraine’s military and energy infrastructure.
The devastating strike in Dnipro hit the entrance of a nine-storey building, turning several floors into smouldering rubble.
Mr Filatov said the number of fatalities was expected to be in the dozens. He added that around 70 people required medical treatment and of those 10 were “in a difficult condition”.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the missile strikes “inhuman”, adding that “Russia intentionally keeps on committing war crimes against civilians”.
Image source, STR/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Speaking on state TV, Mr Putin said “everything is developing within the framework of the plan of the ministry of defence and the general staff”.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said debris clearance in Dnipro would continue all night: “We are fighting for every person, every life.”
It has been two weeks since the last wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. In his address Mr Zelensky said energy infrastructure in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions had been badly hit.
Following the attacks Ukrainian state energy company Ukrenergo temporarily imposed round-the-clock consumption limits for all regions. Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko said the next few days will be “difficult”.
Western and Ukrainian officials have questioned whether Russia’s “energy war” might be coming to an end, due to a possible shortage of suitable missiles and suggestions that the strategy has yet to break Ukraine’s spirit.
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Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday that Ukraine could expect more deliveries of heavy weapons from Western countries.
“Recent pledges for heavy warfare equipment are important – and I expect more in the near future,” Mr Stoltenberg told German media.
Russia’s missile barrage came on the same day that UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his government would give Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv’s armed forces in a bid to help “push Russian troops back”.
In response, Moscow said providing more weapons to Ukraine would lead to intensified Russian operations and more civilian casualties.