Ukraine calls off search for survivors in Dnipro strike that killed at least 45 people
Hundreds of residences destroyed in missile strike, which led to Ukraine presidential adviser's resignation
The death toll from the Ukraine war's deadliest attack on civilians at one location since last spring, a weekend Russian missile strike on a southeastern apartment building, has reached 45, officials said Tuesday.
Those killed in the Saturday afternoon strike in Dnipro included six children, with 79 people injured, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The toll included two dozen people initially listed as missing at the multistory building, which housed about 1,700, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office.
Emergency crews cleared some nine metric tonnes of rubble during a non-stop search and rescue operation, the Dnipro City Council said. Some 400 people lost their homes, with 72 apartments completely ruined and another 236 damaged beyond repair, it said.
People converged at the site Tuesday to lay flowers, light candles and bring plush toys. For a third day in a row, Dnipro resident Oleksandr Pohorielov came to mourn.
"It's like coming to the cemetery to your family. It's a memory, to say a proper goodbye. To remain a human after all," he explained as an intense reek of burning emanated from the building's ruins.
Volunteers helped Nadiia Yaroshenko's son escape from their third floor apartment on a makeshift ladder but their white cat Beliash refused to leave. He remains in his favourite place at a window that is now blown out, Yaroshenko said, desperately trying to see him from the courtyard with a flashlight.
"We cannot reach the apartment even with rescuers because the apartment is in an emergency and dangerous condition. Walls could collapse there every minute," she said.
The latest deadly Russian strike on a civilian target in the almost 11-month war triggered outrage. It also prompted the surprise resignation on Tuesday of a Ukrainian presidential adviser, who said the Russian missile exploded and fell after the Ukrainian air defence system shot it down, a version of events that would take some of the blame off Russian forces.
Oleksii Arestovich's comments in a Saturday-night interview caused an outcry. He said as he quit that his remarks were "a fundamental mistake." Ukraine's air force had stressed that the country's military did not possess a system capable of downing Russia's Kh-22 missiles, which it said was the type that hit the apartment building.
"Since the beginning of Russia's military aggression, more than 210 missiles of this type have been launched on the territory of Ukraine. Not one was shot down by means of anti-aircraft defence," the air force said Saturday.
Dnipro strike should be part of ICC probe: Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy vowed to bring those responsible for the strike to justice, saying it's "a fundamental task" for Ukraine and its Western allies.
"This strike at Dnipro, as well as other similar strikes, falls, in particular, under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court," he said in a video address late Monday.
The U.K. Defence Ministry said Tuesday that the weekend barrage of long-range missiles, the first of its kind in two weeks, targeted Ukraine's power grid.
The ministry noted that the Kh-22 "is notoriously inaccurate when used against ground targets, as its radar guidance system is poor at differentiating targets in urban areas," suggesting that might have been a factor in the deaths in Dnipro.
Similar missiles were used in other incidents that caused high civilian casualties, it said, including a strike on a shopping mall in Ukraine's central city of Kremenchuk last summer that officials said killed more than 20 people.
The deadliest attack involving civilians before Saturday was an April 9, 2022, strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk that left at least 52 people dead, according to The Associated Press-Frontline War Crimes Watch project.
Memorial in Moscow
In Moscow, a makeshift memorial to the Dnipro attack's victims appeared in front of an apartment building, an unusual act in Russia, where even a hint of criticism of the government's "special military operation" in Ukraine is often suppressed. Amid snow, flowers and toy stuffed animals were laid at the monument of prominent Ukrainian writer Lesya Ukrainka, along with a photo of the destroyed building and a sign that read in Russian: "Dnipro. 14.01.2023."
Attacks on civilians have helped stiffen international support for Ukraine as it battles to fend off the Kremlin's invasion. The winter has brought a slowdown in fighting, but military analysts say a new push by both sides is likely once the weather improves.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the country's military would increase its readiness from the current 1.15 million to 1.5 million from this year to 2026.
As part of the buildup, the military will form an army corps in the northwestern region of Karelia, near Finland, as well as three new motorized infantry and two airborne divisions. The military will also beef up seven existing motorized infantry brigades into divisions.
That announcement came a day after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and other U.S. officials met in Kyiv with Zelenskyy. They reiterated Washington's "strong and steadfast commitment to Ukraine," said U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Monday visited Ukraine troops who are training at a military base in Germany under U.S. commanders. More than 600 Ukrainian troops began the expanded training program at the camp the previous day.
"This is one of those moments in time where if you want to make a difference, this is it," Milley told commanders.
Germany, meanwhile, has so far not come to a conclusion on authorizing the delivery of domestically produced Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine.
The tanks, which are a workhorse for armies across Europe, are widely seen as the only plausible option available in sufficient numbers to give Ukraine troops the mobile firepower to drive Russian troops out decisively.