Ukraine on Tuesday stopped its search for survivors in Dnipro, under the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a Russian missile, one of the deadliest bombings of the war, which left 45 dead and around 20 missing according to a last report.
The carnage has only bolstered Ukrainian efforts to negotiate increased supplies of Western armaments, including a first face-to-face meeting in Poland on Tuesday with Ukrainian army commander Valery Zaluzhny and chief of staff American Mark Milley.
Regional Governor Valentyn Reznitchenko reported 45 deaths in Dnipro, including six children, on Tuesday afternoon. According to media reports, an eleven-month-old baby is among those killed.
The previous official toll reported 44 dead, 20 missing and 79 injured.
Earlier, the Ukrainian rescue services had announced on Telegram the end of “search and rescue operations at the site of the strike” in Dnipro.
It is one of the deadliest bombings on a civilian site since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly eleven months ago.
On Saturday, a missile ripped open the Quai de la Victoire building in Dnipro, ravaging “more than 200 apartments” according to a Ukrainian presidential official.
An entire section of the building collapsed, trapping dozens of people in the rubble.
For nearly four days, the emergency services endeavored to extract survivors, with the reinforcement of cranes and a canine brigade. Thirty-nine people were saved.
Funerals of victims
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to bring “everyone guilty of this war crime” to justice.
At the funeral Tuesday of one of the victims, a boxing trainer renowned in his community, relatives gathered, some in tears, in front of his burial and his portrait. Near the coffin, a wreath of blue and yellow flowers, the colors of the national flag.
“I will remember him as an open and honest person, always ready to help,” recalls Artem Birioukov, one of his students, during a farewell ceremony. “He was my second father,” he added.
For its part, Moscow denied as in previous episodes any involvement in the carnage. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke on Monday of a “tragedy” that he believed could be due to a shot by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.
The building was hit in a new salvo of heavy bombings against Ukrainian energy facilities, a campaign launched by the Kremlin in October after a series of Russian military setbacks to plunge Ukrainians into the cold and the cold. black.
On the diplomatic front, Westerners have reaffirmed their support for kyiv, which is still calling for more weapons, especially tanks, to further push back the Russian army from the territories it occupies.
“The message we are sending to (President Vladimir) Putin is that we are committed to defending the Ukrainians until they are victorious,” said British Foreign Minister James Cleverly.
On Saturday, London announced that it wanted to deliver Challenger 2 armored vehicles to kyiv, which will be the first delivery of heavy Western tanks to Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faced increased pressure at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) on Tuesday to authorize the delivery, including by third countries equipped with them, of Leopard 2 tanks, which kyiv has been demanding for years. weeks.
“It’s Verdun over there”
“We are trying to organize more support for Ukraine,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose country has said it is ready to deliver Leopard 2 tanks, “we hope that the manufacturer of these tanks, the Germany, will also participate”.
A new meeting on Western military support for Ukraine is scheduled for Friday at the US base at Ramstein in Germany.
As this meeting approached, Ukrainian General Zaloujny indicated that he had listed to the American Milley “the urgent needs” of kyiv. Ukraine is asking for tanks, light armour, anti-aircraft defense systems and long-range missiles.
The Ukrainian demands come as the Russian army and the paramilitary group Wagner have stepped up efforts in eastern Ukraine to conquer the city of Bakhmout and its surroundings, a bloody battle that has been going on since the summer.
AFP journalists noted on Tuesday that fierce artillery fighting was underway around Bakhmout, a city of 70,000 inhabitants before the war and now largely devastated.
“It’s Verdun over there,” says Ivan, a Ukrainian military paramedic, referring to this appalling First World War battle between the French and Germans in eastern France.