Ukrainian Apartments Hit By Soviet Era Russian Missiles: 30 People Killed, Dozens Trapped In Ruins Of Buildings

The impact of the Russian attack on Dnipro, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian authorities and rescue teams continue to do their best to rescue and search for victims of the Russian missile attack on apartments in Dnipro on Saturday, although dozens of people are presumed dead.

Adviser to the regional governor Natalia Babachenko said 30 people were confirmed dead so far and more than 30 were hospitalized, including 12 in serious condition. Between 30 and 40 people could still be trapped under the rubble, he said.

Meanwhile, emergency workers said they had heard people screaming for help from beneath a pile of rubble from a nine-storey apartment block in the city's east-central and were using the moment of silence to help direct their efforts. Freezing temperatures added to rescuers' worries.

A group of firefighters found a lightly clad woman still alive more than 18 hours after the attack. They took him to a safe place. Dozens of residents, both young and old, watched in horror from the streets.

The body was retrieved by firefighters and lifted from the rubble on a stretcher using a crane.

"The chances of saving people now are very slim," Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov told Reuters, as reported on January 16.

"I think the number of dead will be in the tens," he said bitterly.

Rescue teams worked hard all night looking for survivors. On Sunday morning, they were seen punching and kicking mounds of shattered concrete and bent metal.

"Two rooms on the second floor are practically intact but buried," Dari Kushniruk, deputy director of the regional branch of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, said on television.

Separately, the Ukrainian Air Force said the apartment block was hit by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which was known to be inaccurate and Ukraine had no air defenses to shoot it down. Soviet-era missiles were developed during the Cold War to destroy warships.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Ukraine's southern command said Russia fired only half of the cruise missiles it deployed into the Black Sea during Saturday's raid.

"This indicates they still have certain plans. We must understand that they can still be used," said spokeswoman Natalia Humeniuk.

Russia fired two waves of missiles into Ukraine on Saturday, hitting targets across the country, as fighting raged on the battlefield in the eastern cities of Soledar and Bakhmut.

In a statement on Sunday about the previous day's strike, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not name the Dnipro as a specific target.

"All assigned objects were hit. Target of attack has been achieved," he said.

It is understood that Moscow, which invaded last February, has been pounding Ukraine's energy infrastructure with missiles and drones since October, causing power outages and disruptions to central heating and running water.