The death toll in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 40 after a nine-story apartment building was hit in a Russian missile strike, according to reports, in one of Moscow’s deadliest attacks on a civilian target since the start of the war.
At least 40 people have been killed, with 30 still missing as rescuers comb through the rubble, Reuters reports.
“As of now, the fate of more than 30 people who could have been in the house at the time of the terrorists’ missile hit remains unknown,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
At least one of the dead is a child, and the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, Mykola Lukashuk, said more than a dozen children were among the 75 people injured in the attack.
After the attack on Dnipro, Zelensky announced expanded sanctions on Russians who “justify terror” against their Ukrainian neighbors.
“I think it is right that today there is a decision to expand our sanctions against Russian citizens and other persons who help terror,” Zelensky said.
Moscow has launched missile strikes against Dnipro, Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine in recent days, its first major move in almost two weeks as the war nears its one-year mark in February.
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska said in an interview Sunday that the country is ready and able to weather even more of the drawn-out war.
“This state terrorism aims to intimidate people … And one of the purposes that they have is to destroy the infrastructure of this country, for people to be exhausted, for people to raise their voice and say, ‘Oh, we are sick and tired of this war. Let us negotiate. Let us bring this war to the end.’ But they failed in this purpose,” the first lady said.