The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro over the weekend continued to rise on Monday, even as dozens remain missing in the debris.
Rescuers continued to search the rubble of the nine-storey apartment tower which partly collapsed after being struck by a missile on Saturday. Authorities said at least 40 people are dead, including 3 children, after more bodies were recovered during the night.
At least 75 people were wounded in the strike, including 14 children, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. He said more than 100 people had survived the strike.
In sub-zero temperatures, there was little hope of finding any more survivors, although Reznichenko insisted - like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the previous evening - that "the search for people under the rubble continues."
The destruction of the apartment tower has become a symbol of the war's brutal toll on Ukrainian civilians. The strike on Dnipro was the worst of numerous Russian air attacks over the weekend that particularly targeted Ukrainian civilian energy infrastructure.
The European Union condemned Russia for the missile strike, saying that Russia's "continued heinous strikes" on Ukraine would only serve to strengthen the EU's resolve to support Ukraine.
"Russia continues to show its inhuman face and applies its brutal missile terror indiscriminately," an EU foreign affairs spokesperson said in Brussels on Monday.
The European Commission also announced that the first payout of €3 billion ($3.2 billion) in loans for Ukraine from an €18-billion support package is to be issued on Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, rejected blame for the deadly attack on Dnipro on Monday. Peskov instead sought to blame Ukrainian air defences for the missile strike.
Peskov claimed that Russia has only attacked military targets in Ukraine, even though Russian shells have repeatedly killed many civilians throughout the Russian invasion.
Also on Monday, the Russian air force began joint manoeuvrers with Belarus. The extensive exercises will involve all air bases and other military installations in Belarus, according to the Belarusian Defence Ministry.
Ukraine has repeatedly expressed fears that Russia may launch additional attacks from Belarus, a close Russian ally. Belarus has so far not become directly involved in the war, although Russian military forces used bases in the country to launch attacks early in the invasion.
Western military analysts consider a major Russian offensive from Belarus to be unlikely at the moment, in part because Russia does not appear to currently have large concentrations of troops in the country.
