Children killed as Russian missile hits apartments in Ukraine

At least 18 people were killed and 64 others injured in a deadly Russian missile strike that hit a high-rise apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Saturday.

Twelve children were among the injured in the strike that destroyed 72 flats, Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, wrote on Telegram.

Rescue workers have since pulled people from the rubble of the partially collapsed building.

More than 1,000 people had to be relocated.

Trapped residents were signalling their location under the debris with their mobile phone torches, according to a spokesperson from the Ukrainian emergency workers.

Recovery efforts were to continue all night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said later in his nightly video address.

The Kiev city government says work was ongoing to restore power supplies. In all, there were power cuts in six areas of the country.

Earlier, the presidential office in Kiev released photos and videos of the Dnipro building in ruins.

The head of the office, Andriy Yermak, vented his anger: “Russians are terrorists will be punished for everything. Everyone – without exception.”

Referring to the rescue operations, Zelensky said: “We are fighting for every person, for every life.”

Following minor Russian missile attacks in the morning, Moscow considerably increased its shelling of numerous locations on Saturday, causing the government to issue an air raid alert.

Besides Dnipro, other areas hit include Odessa in the south, Kharkiv in the east, Lviv in the west and the capital Kiev. Civilian infrastructure, including electricity sites, was once again damaged and power outages were reported.

The Ukrainian military said that 25 of 38 Russian missiles were shot down on Saturday.

These were the first major missile attacks since the start of the new year.

The Ukrainian Skies Force had earlier warned of possible additional assaults, claiming that multiple long-range Tupolev Tu-95 bombers were in the air.

Furthermore, Russian vessels had taken up positions in the Black Sea, from which missiles were launched regularly.

dpa/NAN