Photo: VITALI MATOKHA / Getty Images
For: The opinion Posted Jan 17, 2023, 0:14 am EST
The death toll from a Russian missile attack over the weekend on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to 40, officials said, as Western analysts pointed to signs the Kremlin was preparing for a protracted war in Ukraine after nearly 11 attacks. months of fighting
Some 1,700 people lived in the multi-story building and search and rescue teams have worked around the clock since Saturday’s attack to locate victims and survivors among the rubble.. The regional administration said 39 people have been rescued so far and 30 more are still missing. Authorities said at least 75 were injured.
The reported death toll made it the deadliest single attack on Ukrainian civilians since before the summer, according to international agencies.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called the attack, and others like it, an “inhuman aggression” because it directly targeted civilians. “There will be no impunity for these crimes,” he said in a tweet on Sunday.
The attack on the building came amid a broader Russian cruise missile barrage in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that it did not have the means to intercept the type of Russian missile that hit the residential building in Dnipro.
Another Russian missile attack hit Ukrainian cities yesterday. Russia’s inhuman aggression directly targets civilians, including children.
There will be no impunity for these crimes.
The EU will continue supporting Ukraine, for as long as it takes. #Dnipro
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) January 15, 2023
Fierce fighting continued Monday in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk oblast and neighboring Luhansk oblast make up Donbas, a sprawling industrial region bordering Russia that Russian President Vladimir Putin identified as a hotbed from the start. beginning of the war. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv forces there since 2014.
At the same time, the Russian and Belarusian air forces began a joint exercise on Monday in Belarus, which borders Ukraine and served as the scene for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The drills are scheduled for February 1, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said. Russia has sent its fighter jets to Belarus for the exercises.
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