Ukrainian rescue teams searched for survivors in the rubble of an apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed at least 25 people and injured 73 others, as Britain said it would send a squadron of tanks to Kyiv’s military in the coming weeks.
“As of now, 39 people were rescued, including six children ... 43 people are missing. Preliminarily, 72 apartments were destroyed and more than 230 apartments were damaged,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, adding that one child was among the dead and 13 were among those injured in the eastern city of Dnipro.
“Search-and-rescue operations and dismantling of dangerous structural elements continue. Round the clock. We continue to fight for every life,” he added.
Kyiv said Russia hit the building on Saturday with a type of missile that carries a 950kg explosive warhead and was designed to destroy aircraft carriers, as it launched the latest in a wave of rocket attacks against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine; at least five civilians were killed and seven injured in shelling elsewhere in the country on Saturday.
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Russia’s defence ministry did not mention the attack on Dnipro, but said “rocket strikes were carried out on Ukraine’s system of military command and energy facilities connected with it. All designated targets were hit. The aim of the strike was achieved.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose 11-month, all-out war against Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, said “the dynamic is positive. Everything is developing within the plan of the defence ministry and general staff.”
“And I hope that our fighters will continue to please us with the results of their combat work,” he added in comments to Russian state media.
Intense fighting continued around the small salt-mining town of Soledar and the nearby city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, with Kyiv continuing to reject Russian claims to have taken control of the former.
“Can Russian terror be stopped? Yes. Is it possible to do it somehow other than on the battlefield in Ukraine? Unfortunately, no. This can and must be done on our land, in our sky, in our sea,” Mr Zelenskiy said.
“What is needed for this? Those weapons that are in the warehouses of our partners and that our troops are so waiting for,” he added, after a phone conversation with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.
Mr Sunak’s office said he outlined plans “to intensify our support to Ukraine, including through the provision of Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems.”
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“Sending Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine is the start of a gear change in the UK’s support. A squadron of 14 tanks will go into the country in the coming weeks ... The UK will begin training the Ukrainian armed forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days.”
No 10 Downing Street said UK officials “believe a window has opened up where Russia is on the back foot due to resupply issues and plummeting morale”, and that Mr Sunak had tasked his defence secretary Ben Wallace with “bringing together European allies to ensure the surge of global military support is as strategic and co-ordinated as possible.”
Poland has said it is ready to send about 14 German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine as part of an “international coalition”, and several other Nato states are believed to share that willingness if Berlin allows the transfer of the vehicles.
Kyiv is hoping for major new arms supply commitments when defence officials from dozens of its allies meet in the format of the so-called Ramstein group on Friday.
