The number of people killed by a Russian missile attack on an apartment building in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine on Saturday 14/01 rose to 40, while dozens of residents remain missing.
According to Zelensky, rescue crews continue to search the mass of debris left from the apartment building.
“We are fighting for every one” of the residents, he added and pledged that “the rescue operation will continue as long as there is even the slightest chance of saving a life.”
The city’s mayor, Boris Filatov, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday that 72 apartments were destroyed. According to him, the missile was probably aimed at a nearby power station, but missed and hit a residential building.
The reported death toll made the Russian attack the deadliest against civilians since before the summer.
Fierce fighting continued to rage Monday in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, where military analysts said both sides were likely to have suffered heavy troop losses.
Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk province make up the Donbass, a sprawling industrial region bordering Russia that Russian President Vladimir Putin has identified as a focus since the start of the war. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kiev forces there since 2014.
