More than 24 hours after a heavy-duty missile built to sink ships exploded in a dense Ukrainian cityscape of homes and shops, the lights of emergency workers played across the rubble on Sunday, in search of life.
Death was easy to find.
As smoke and dust rose into the Dnipro sky, a light dusting of snow began to accumulate on five victims who had been pulled from the rubble and laid out in body bags in a small grassy area next to the destroyed building. They were five of 30 confirmed killed in a Russian strike on a civilian neighborhood — 79 were injured — and at least 30 people remained unaccounted for.
Even some of those pulled from the debris that was once their homes seemed to have only an uncertain grasp on life.
“I have no words, I have no emotions, I feel nothing except a great emptiness inside,” one 23-year-old woman, Anastasiia Shvets, wrote on social media.
An image of Ms. Shvets from the scene of the attack struck a chord with Ukrainians across the country. It shows a young woman clutching a stuffed animal and a golden Christmas garland as she stands in the ruins and waits to be rescued.
Ms. Shvets somehow emerged with only a small head wound and bruises on her legs. But her parents, she wrote on a verified account on Instagram, were still missing. And her partner, who was serving in the Ukrainian military, was killed in action four months ago.
The strike on Saturday at an ordinary, nine-story residential building led to one of the largest losses of civilian lives far from the front line since the beginning of the war, and it prompted renewed calls for Moscow to be charged with war crimes. In an address to Ukrainians on Sunday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was also critical to punish “those who grease the Russian propaganda machine.”
He offered a warning to Russian citizens in their own language: “Your cowardly silence, your attempt to ‘wait out’ what is happening will only end with those same terrorists coming after you one day.”
It is considered a war crime to deliberately or recklessly attack civilian populations or places where civilians would be likely to congregate, but Moscow has paid little heed to the international rules of war.
The assault on Dnipro was hardly the first time a Ukrainian population center far from the front lines — including the city itself — had been targeted since Russia invaded in February. Russian strikes on train stations, theaters, shopping malls and residential neighborhoods have led to significant loss of civilian life, as has the shelling of cities and towns near the front line.
The State of the War
But images of the devastation in the central city of Dnipro provoked anger and despair among Ukrainians, and the attack appeared to be part of a return to old tactics.
In recent months, Moscow has turned the focus of its assault on infrastructure targets that provide power, heat and water, apparently hoping to demoralize the country. But for reasons that remain unclear, over the weekend, Russia launched dozens of missiles at cities across Ukraine in two waves of strikes that coincided with the Orthodox New Year and shattered the relative calm of recent days.
The missile that struck the building in Dnipro appeared to have been a Kh-22 cruise missile, also known as an X-22 missile, according to Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense. She said it was one of five of them fired at Ukrainian territory that day.
The Soviet-era missiles weigh about 2,000 pounds, can be fired from long distances and are intended for anti-ship operations. They are also capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said the Kh-22 missile that appears to have hit Dnipro could have been launched by only one Russian unit, the 52nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment.
“This type of missile leads to the greatest human casualties, because the missile is extremely inaccurate,” the office said. “Therefore, the use of such weapons for targets in densely populated areas is clearly a war crime.”
More than 210 missiles of that type have been used in attacks on Ukrainian territory since Russia invaded, including a strike on a shopping center in Kremenchuk in June that killed 18 people.
Immediately after the Dnipro attack, pro-Russian news outlets and influential military bloggers claimed that the apartment building was not the target, but had been struck by fragments of the missile after Ukrainian air defenses tried to intercept it. But Ukrainian forces were quick to deny that, and the evidence from the scene pointed to a direct strike on the building.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine have no weapons capable of shooting down this type of missile,” Ms. Maliar said.
In fact, she said, the attack showed the need for antiaircraft missile systems like the Patriot system that Ukraine has long been lobbying its allies for. The United States and Germany have agreed to supply Ukraine with the Patriot system, and Ukrainian forces are to begin training on it in Oklahoma in the coming week.
Dnipro, a city nestled against the river of the same name, had a population of just under one million before the war began. After Moscow invaded, it was targeted by Russian shelling but never occupied by its forces, and never the scene of frontline fighting. The city has been home to displaced people who have flocked to its relative safety.
Even so, Dnipro has been intermittently targeted by missile strikes, and since October, when the Russian assault on infrastructure stepped up, a number have struck the city.
On Sunday, neighbors gathered at the site of the latest attack, looking on in disbelief. Less than 24 hours earlier, the area had been untouched.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said 72 apartments had been destroyed. The explosion also shattered the windows of surrounding buildings, leaving many more people displaced. Plastic sheeting had been taped over some windows blown out by the explosion, and workers were measuring others so that glass could be reinstalled.
By late afternoon, as firefighters searched the rubble for survivors, the air was filled with the sounds of cranes and crunching glass. Dump trucks rolled in and out of the area, collecting debris and clearing the streets surrounding the partly collapsed building.
A humanitarian tent city had sprung up, with volunteers making sandwiches and distributing tea and coffee to the hundreds of rescuers and residents on the scene. One tent had mattresses, blankets and tarps. Some people huddled around open bonfires for warmth in the frozen air.
Some residents of damaged buildings were waiting to get the go-ahead so they could collect their belongings. Others were already picking through what was left and taking what they could. With no windows in the bitter cold, it was impossible to stay.
More than 550 people were involved in the rescue operation, according to local officials.
As the 24-hour mark approached, at least one person, a 27-year-old woman, was pulled alive from the debris. She was taken to a hospital and was being treated for severe hypothermia, local officials said.
Mr. Zelensky said reports had been coming in from Dnipro all day.
“We are fighting for every person,” he said. “The rescue operation will last as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives.”
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting.
