The United Kingdom will deliver “in the next few weeks” heavy tanks to Ukraine, where relief workers were active on Sunday at dawn to try to find survivors in the ruins of a building in Dnipro (east) affected by a Russian strike that killed 14 people.
A video posted by Ukrainian rescue services on Facebook and Telegram showed rescuers digging through the rubble of the Dnipro building overnight. These services said they had verbal exchanges with a woman trapped under the rubble that they were desperately trying to deliver.
At least 14 people, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed and 64 injured in the bombardment of this building, said early Sunday morning the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko.
According to him, rescuers have so far managed to extract 38 survivors from the rubble. According to the Ukrainian presidency, between 100 and 200 people are homeless as a result of this strike, and some 1,700 inhabitants of Dnipro were without electricity and heating.
In the south, in Kryvyi Rig, one person was killed and another injured in the destruction of apartment buildings by a strike, according to an official report.
In total, “the enemy carried out three airstrikes and about fifty missile strikes during the day”, specified the staff of the Ukrainian army. “In addition, the occupiers launched 50 attacks with multiple rocket launchers.”
Power cuts also affected most parts of the country after new Russian attacks on electricity production facilities, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“Is it possible to stop the Russian terror? Yes it’s possible. Can we do it other than on the battlefield in Ukraine? Unfortunately, no,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented.
“The world must stop this evil,” he implored.
Moldova claimed to have found missile debris on its territory, near the northern village of Larga. “The brutal war that Russia is waging against Ukraine has again affected Moldova”, protested its president Maia Sandu.
heavy tanks
The United Kingdom promised on Saturday the delivery “in the coming weeks” of 14 Challenger 2 heavy tanks to Ukraine.
The delivery reflects “the UK’s ambition to step up its support for Ukraine”, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Mr Zelensky in a phone call, according to a Downing Street statement.
The United Kingdom thus becomes the first country to commit to sending this type of armored vehicle to Ukraine. Mr Zelensky thanked the UK on Twitter for taking decisions that “not only will strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners”.
The announcement caused Russian diplomacy to react, which considered that this shipment of arms would “in no way accelerate the end of military hostilities, but only intensify them, causing new victims”, according to a press release from the embassy. of Russia in London on Saturday.
kyiv had already received from its allies heavy tanks of Soviet design – nearly 300 – but none of Western manufacture yet.
Poland had already said it was ready on Wednesday to deliver 14 Leopard 2 heavy tanks of German design, which requires the approval of Berlin.
Several Western states have also recently announced the supply of lighter infantry or reconnaissance tanks.
Soledar holds, assures kyiv
On the front, the town of Soledar, in eastern Ukraine, is still “under Ukrainian control”, assured Saturday the governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kirilenko, noting that “the fighting continues in the city and outside “.
This locality and that close to Bakhmout currently remain the “hottest” points of the conflict, he said on television.
Near Soledar, AFP journalists saw rescue teams treating wounded Ukrainians.
“The situation is difficult, but the Ukrainians are holding their positions,” assured Vadim, a rescue worker, who was helping to evacuate a soldier shot in the leg.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Friday that the “liberation” of Soledar had taken place “on January 12 in the evening”.
Fighting in and around this town has been raging for several months, but its intensity has increased sharply in recent days.
Its capture by the forces of Moscow would constitute a notable victory for Russia, after the series of failures recorded by its troops in recent months.