Russia and Ukraine: 23 dead and 43 missing in the Russian bombing of the Dnieper

The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Dnieper has suggested that there may be no more survivors under the rubble of a residential house hit by a Russian missile strike on Saturday.

The explosion left 23 people dead, while 43 are missing.

Mayor Boris Filatov said that the chances of finding survivors under the rubble of the collapsed building are "decreasing".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking on Russian television, stressed that the military actions are proceeding as planned.

Russia also bombed the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa last Saturday in an attack that Moscow said targeted military and energy facilities in Ukraine.

The devastating shelling of the city of Dnieper hit the entrance to a nine-story building and turned it into burning ruins.

The head of the city's municipal council said that emergency teams managed to save 38 people, while 72 people were injured, including 14 children, according to what he wrote via the Telegram messaging application.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called the Russian rocket fire "inhuman", adding that "Russia deliberately continues to commit war crimes against the civilian population".

Speaking on state television, Putin said that "everything is happening according to the plan of the Ministry of Defense and the chief of staff of the Russian army".

In turn, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, in his evening speech, said that the operation to clean up the rubble of the Dnieper will continue throughout the night, stressing: "we will fight to the last man, to the last breath" that we have.

On the other hand, three soldiers were killed and 13 others injured in a bomb explosion in the Russian city of Belgorod, reports the Russian news agency بيا "Novosti", citing sources in the emergency services.

Moscow said ten Russian soldiers were injured in an accidental explosion at a cultural center converted into an ammunition depot, Reuters news agency reported.

The Russian bombing took place two weeks after the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid. Zelensky also stressed that the infrastructure of energy facilities in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv has been severely damaged.

After this attack, the Ukrainian power grid company Ukrinenergo imposed temporary restrictions on electricity consumption throughout the region. Herman Galushchenko said that the next few days will be "difficult".

Ukrainian and Western officials believe that the Russian energy war may be coming to an end due to a possible shortage of suitable missiles to hit these targets and that this strategy has not yet succeeded in breaking Ukraine's morale.

A new wave of Russian missile strikes took place on the same day that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the UK would supply the Ukrainian armed forces with Challenger 2 tanks as part of an effort to "prevent the advance of Russian troops".

In response, Moscow said that sending more weapons to Ukraine would lead to an intensive intensification of Russian military operations, and then to an increase in civilian casualties.