Dnipro officials accused Russia of launching a missile attack on an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city, killing at least 20 civilians.
“Twenty innocent people have died, 73 are injured, and the fate of more than 40 others is still unknown,” Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Dnipro province, central Ukraine, wrote on January 15 Telegram about the aftermath of the raid.
Mr. Reznichenko said that the apartment building in the city of Dnipro, the capital of the province of the same name, partially collapsed after being hit by a Russian missile on the evening of January 14.
City rescuers worked through the night in the cold to find survivors and bodies. Ukrainian officials accused Russia of carrying out the missile launch at the nine-story apartment building, while the Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on this development.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the death toll in the attack could continue to rise. Dnipro deputy mayor Mikhailo Lysenko said some residents who survived the raid had sent text messages asking for help from the rubble.
Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city, was one of several sites hit by rockets on January 14. The raids mainly targeted the critical infrastructure of major cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Lviv. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia had launched 38 missiles into its territory, 25 of which were shot down.
From October 2022, Russia began to attack Ukraine’s energy and military infrastructure to weaken its combat strength and force Kyiv to the negotiating table.
After months of Russian raids, about half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was destroyed or damaged, leaving people without power and heat for hours in freezing temperatures.
Ukraine calls Russia out for purposely injuring citizens and breaking its will through attacks on infrastructure, calling them “war crimes.” At the same time, Moscow claimed it attacked Ukrainian facilities to obstruct the transfer of American and ally weapons to Kyiv.