Russia-Ukraine war: Russian missile strikes apartment building in Dnipro, nearly 30 killed

A missile that hit an apartment building in Ukraine's eastern city of Dnipro on Saturday has thus far killed 29 people, with some 40 others still unaccounted for, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on Sunday.

Reznichenko said on his Telegram account that a search operation, ongoing for over 24 hours, has involved 550 people. They included rescuers, police officers, doctors and volunteers.

On Sunday, a 27-year-old woman was pulled out from under the rubble. She suffered from severe hypothermia and was taken to a hospital's intensive care unit for treatment, Reznichenko said.

The governor added that 39 residents of the struck building were rescued. Of the 73 people injured during the strike, 30 were hospitalized, including 12 with serious injuries.

Over 70 apartments were destroyed by the strike, which was carried out using a Russian Kh-22 missile, the Ukrainian armed force said. The missile is known to be inaccurate and Ukrainian forces lack the necessary air defense to shoot it down.

Emergency workers reported hearing the screams of people under piles of debris from the building. Rescuers were challenged even more by the freezing temperatures, which were around 1 degree Celsius (33 degrees Fahrenheit).

"The chances of saving people now are minimal," Dnipro's Mayor Borys Filatov told Reuters news agency. "I think the number of dead will be in the dozens."

Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that those killed included one child and those injured included 13 more.

"My condolences to all the families and friends of the victims," he wrote.

On Saturday, Russia conducted strikes also on the southern city of Odesa, the eastern city of Kharkiv and the western city of Lviv, alongside the capital, Kyiv. The strikes damaged civilian infrastructure including electricity sites and were the first major missile attacks in the new year, the German DPA news agency said.