Deaths from Russian missile strike on Ukraine apartment building climb to 35

(Update 1: Upgrades death toll, adds detail, alters lede, head)

Lviv, Ukraine, Jan 16 (EFE).- The number of people killed by a Russian missile strike on a multi-story apartment block in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 35, including two children, the local governor said Monday.

At least 75 people, including 14 children, were injured in the powerful blast that on Saturday destroyed 72 apartments and damaged over 230, Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Dnipro is located, said in a Telegram post.

The search for 35 people who are unaccounted for was ongoing.

“At night, rescuers pulled out several more dead from under the rubble of a high-rise building destroyed by a Russian missile,” he added.

Russia allegedly hit the residential building with a long-range Raduga Kh-22 missile, a Soviet-era weapon designed to target aircraft carriers or battleships and that can be equipped with either a conventional or nuclear warhead.

Dnipro authorities have declared three days of mourning for the victims of the missile strike.

The United Nations has previously warned that Russia’s targeting of civilian infrastructure could amount to war crimes.

In his nightly address Sunday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged an exhaustive rescue operation at the devastated Dnipro apartment complex.

“We are fighting for every person! The rescue operation will last as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives,” said.

Meanwhile, three people, including two children, were injured in another Russian missile attack in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region early Monday.

“Three people were transported to hospitals. Among them are two children aged nine and fifteen,” Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia city council, said on Telegram, adding that emergency medical care was being administered to all the victims.

“Rescuers of the State Emergency Service, medics and utility workers are working at the scene of the impact,” he added.

A short while earlier, Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the regional military administration, said that “the enemy launched a rocket attack on the regional center and suburbs.”

“There is destruction of civil, residential and industrial infrastructure. Information was received about several lightly wounded. All relevant services are on site,” he said in a Telegram post.EFE

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