VS’is one of the heaviest tolls since the start of the war in Ukraine. A strike against a residential building in Dnieper left 40 dead, according to a last count made on Monday January 16, which is still likely to increase. This very deadly Russian strike is a “war crime” for which those responsible must be prosecuted, the Swedish presidency of the European Union said on Monday 16 January. In a joint conference with European Council President Charles Michel, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned a “horrible attack”. “Intentional attacks against civilians are war crimes and those responsible must be prosecuted for as long as necessary,” he added.
As usual, the Kremlin denied being responsible for the carnage, blaming the Ukrainian side. The spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, spoke of “a tragedy” that could be due to a shot by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.
Monday, nearly 48 hours after a missile ripped open a building on the Victory Quay in Dnieper, 40 dead bodies had been found, according to the emergency services, while 75 injured were counted. Cranes were in action to bring rescuers into the ravaged and otherwise inaccessible apartments or to lift concrete slabs. In the rubble, rescue teams were looking for the 29 people still missing, authorities said. Since the start of rescue operations, 39 people have been rescued from the ruins of the building.READ ALSO Ukraine: “As soon as the Russians turned their back, we gave their position to our army”
“Five stories collapsed on top of her…”
Sunday afternoon, Roman Jouravksy was still desperately looking for his mother, who lived there. “My mother has not yet been found. But the probability, given that five floors have collapsed on top of her…” he begins, before his voice trails off.
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The Kremlin took two days to react, with its spokesman denying that his country could have carried out such a strike. “The Russian armed forces are not bombing residential buildings or civilian infrastructure, they are bombing military targets,” Dmitry Peskov said, despite multiple bombings that have hit a multitude of non-military targets since the invasion began on February 24.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not comment on the subject on Sunday, saying on the other hand that his war in Ukraine was in a “positive dynamic”, a few days after Moscow claimed responsibility for the capture of a small town in the East. Ukrainian.
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A regular bombing campaign
The strike that destroyed the apartment building in Dnieper came in the wake of a regular and massive bombing campaign that Moscow has been waging since October against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which has plunged the population into darkness and cold. in the middle of winter. Faced with this rain of missiles and the threat of a new Russian offensive, Westerners have intensified their military aid to Ukraine. They now plan to send armored vehicles and tanks there after having long been reluctant to deploy heavy weapons there.
After the Dnieper strike, the United States denounced “a new example of the brutal and barbaric war waged by Russia against the Ukrainian people”.
Faced with promises of arms deliveries, in particular tanks from the United Kingdom and Poland, the Kremlin has sworn that these armored vehicles will “burn”. “These tanks are burning and will burn,” Dmitry Peskov said in his daily telephone briefing to the press, once again accusing the West of using Ukraine “to achieve anti-Russian goals”.
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Motivated and strengthened by increasing military and financial aid, the Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian army, inflicting severe reverses on it in the spring and autumn. However, kyiv says it needs heavy tanks, light armor, long-range missile systems and anti-aircraft defenses to retake all of the territories that Moscow occupies in eastern and southern Ukraine.
On Saturday, London announced the delivery to kyiv of Challenger 2 armored vehicles, which would be the first delivery of Western-made heavy tanks to Ukraine. After its severe setbacks in the fall, Russia is trying to regain the initiative with its bombardments on the energy infrastructure and by redoubling its efforts in the battle to take Bakhmout, a city in the East plagued by a bloody battle since the summer.
Heavy losses in Bakhmout
Moscow claimed victory last week, claiming to have taken Soledar, a city just north of Bakhmout. Today largely destroyed, this agglomeration with a mining economy had some 10,000 inhabitants before the war. Ukraine has denied abandoning the town, citing ongoing fighting.
The Ukrainian army, in a press release, claimed to inflict “heavy human losses” on Russian forces near Bakhmout and Avdiivka, another city in eastern Ukraine. Elsewhere in the country, the Ukrainian presidency has recorded three more civilians killed in Russian strikes in the Kherson region, partly reconquered by kyiv in November.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is expected in Ukraine on Monday. In a tweet before his departure, he stressed that his organization would expand its presence in this country “to help prevent a nuclear accident during the ongoing conflict”.
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