"Hatred for Russia is stronger than fear". A report from Dnipro, where Russian forces attacked an apartment block

Saturday, 14 January brought tragedy to the residents of an apartment block in the city of Dnipro when their building was hit by a Russian missile. As of 13:20 on 16 January, 40 people have been killed, 75 have been injured, and at least 35 are missing.

While rescue workers are continuing to clear away the rubble and doctors are fighting to save the lives of those who survived the attack, the families of those who were killed are cursing Russia for bringing war to our country.

Ukrainska Pravda reports on the details of the tragic attack.

"We escaped through a window"

I met Oleh, a Dnipro resident, and his wife in one of Dnipro’s hospitals. Every inch of his body is covered in cuts and scratches.

He and his wife lived in the apartment block that was hit by the Russian missile. That they survived this weekend is a miracle.

"The explosion seemed to go on for a long time. Everything was swept away," Oleh recalls. He still struggles to speak or even keep his eyes open for long, due to burns and cuts from the broken glass.

"We couldn’t leave the apartment ourselves, because the doors were blocked. We were rescued through a window on the fourth floor. I’m so glad I’m alive, that my wife is all right. I’m grateful to our rescue workers, our doctors and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I hope that everything will be all right," Oleh tells Ukrainska Pravda. It seems that he has still not fully recovered from the shock of what happened.

Rescue workers told Ukrainska Pravda that the destroyed apartment block was a panel building: the explosion caused all the panels to fold and collapse outwards. People ended up deep under the rubble, which made the rescue operations particularly complicated.

"Three people died within an hour of arriving at the hospital, and eight are currently in intensive care in a critical condition," a doctor from a Dnipro hospital tells Ukrainska Pravda.

"Three patients were moved from intensive care straight to the operating room. Surgeons removed stones, pieces of concrete and metal fragments from wounds in their heads, chests, stomachs and limbs. Over 20 litres of blood was needed for transfusions."

Twelve children rescued from under the rubble were taken to another hospital.

Rescue workers say that at least 41 people could still be trapped under the rubble of the apartment block.

"We lost everything in an instant"

Natalia, another Dnipro resident, has her head and arms bandaged; she too is covered in cuts and scratches. She was at home on the afternoon of 14 January. I met her the day after the Russian missile strike as she waited in a queue at a local police station to submit a report documenting the Russian war crime.

"I was standing in my kitchen. I was boiling carrots and potatoes for vinigret [a salad of boiled beetroot, carrots, potatoes and peas, with pickles or sauerkraut - ed.]. There was no electricity and Viber wasn’t working in my bedroom, only by the window," Natalia says.

"So I was standing there, bending over so I could read the text on my phone. And then – boom! – I was flying through the air. I didn’t hear the sound of the explosion, I didn’t hear anything. I was just sent flying. Window frames, glass, everything collapsed and fell all over me. My arm and my head were bleeding. I ran out of my flat but everything was all over the place: doors, concrete slabs, partitions. I don’t know how I managed to get through all of that, with my dog in tow. I live on the ninth floor. I was shouting ‘Help!’ to the rescue workers as I ran," the woman recalls.

On her way down from the ninth floor, Natalia heard screaming and groans.

"I will remember them for as long as I live. Today I couldn’t close my eyes at all, not for a second… I was lying in bed with this hellish vision right before my eyes! Damn those inhuman beasts. I feel nothing but hatred and pain."

Tetiana Reshetilova, another Dnipro resident, was also injured in the Russian missile strike. I met her near the destroyed building.

"My kitchen was over there, where you can see a big jumble of things," Tetiana tries to joke as she shows us what is left of her apartment. She says her escape was a miracle: she’d left her flat a few hours before the attack.

"I was lucky. I’d gone to the Ministry of Social Policy, though usually I’d be at home at that time," Tetiana recalls. "I’ll go and light a candle to thank God that I was saved."

"When doors and windows are being sent flying, amid clouds of smoke… What did we do? We were in a state of shock, then we started running out – barefoot, without proper clothes on," says Yuliia, a resident of the destroyed apartment block. She lived in a flat on the second floor of the building for 10 years. It was a miracle she managed to escape.

"As we were running out of the building, there was rubble all around us, we barely managed to escape," Yuliia says, still in shock, as she stands waiting to talk to the police and submit a report to be recognised as a victim of the attack. She says she still cannot process what has happened. "We lost everything in an instant…"

Under the rubble

It is -2°C, there is wet snow outside, and the acrid smell of smoke makes it difficult to breathe, but this does not stop the work of the rescue workers for a moment. All night long, equipment and power generators humming, under the glare of spotlights, they have been clearing away the rubble.

"Is there anyone alive?" shout the rescue workers who are working to clear away the rubble in Dnipro at midnight on 14 January.

At that moment, all the equipment is switched off and a moment of silence is announced. It is important that the workers can hear any signal given by the survivors. 

"There IS! There’s someone there! A woman!" the rescue workers shout. They continue to clear away the rubble as carefully as possible, because one false move could mean death for someone who could potentially be saved.

"A ‘minute of silence’ is decided on so that everyone completely stops work and starts doing sound reconnaissance," says Oleh Kushniruk, Deputy Head of the Emergencies Department in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. "We need to hear the people who are there, under the rubble, giving signals – either responding or knocking on radiators, if possible. 

Then, we work where the injured people are first of all, and secondly, we deal with the bodies of those who were killed."

The rescue workers have been working all night, persistently and carefully, to save the woman from under the rubble, stopping several times to listen to her and coordinate their actions. 

They also used specially trained rescue dogs who are able to search for people trapped under the rubble.

"We have been searching for living people since 2008, and since 2013 we have also been searching for the dead," says Larysa Borysenko, Head of the Antares canine unit from Pavlohrad. 

"Our dogs sense the pulmonary breath of a living person or the scent of a corpse if the person is already dead - whether these are fresh corpses or buried or burned remains. Our dogs are the only ones who work with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in searches for bodies."

The rescue workers from the State Emergency Service eventually rescued the woman under the rubble about 10 hours after their first contact with her. She was immediately taken to hospital. When we asked whether we could talk to her, doctors said that it would not yet be possible, as she couldn’t speak.

"She can make sounds, but she can't hear us," doctors explained.

Some residents of the destroyed building were able to reach out to rescue workers for help using the flashlights on their phones.

"I don't know about the phones, but some of them sent text messages," Oleh Kushniruk, Deputy Head of the Emergencies Department in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, told us. "And the people who received the texts came to the departments and told us approximately which apartment they were from, which floor. Then we conducted an analysis and determined the location of these people," Kushniruk said.

In total, Ukrainian rescue workers have been able to save 39 people, including six children, as of 15 January. 

What did the Russians use to carry out this attack?

According to Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russians hit the apartment building in Dnipro with a Kh-22 missile, known as an "aircraft carrier killer". Its warhead has a mass of about 950 kg and the maximum range is up to 600 km.

Missile launches were carried out from Kursk, Russia, and the Sea of Azov.

Russia launched five such missiles across Ukraine on 14 January. 

"One of the Kh-22 missiles launched from Kursk Oblast [Russia] around 15:30 on 14 January 2023 hit a high-rise building (on Peremohy Embankment Street) in the city of Dnipro. Radar detected the approximate launch site, altitude, and flight speed. There is no doubt that it was a Kh-22 missile," noted the Armed Forces of Ukraine, adding that they have no firepower capable of shooting down this type of missile.

"Over 210 such missiles have been launched on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's military aggression. And not a single one has been shot down by air defence systems."

Oleksii Arestovych, a non-staff adviser to Andrii Yermak, Head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, said that the air defence had shot down the Russian missile and that was why it fell on the building. Russian propagandists echoed this statement and it caused a huge scandal in Ukraine. However, both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the people who lived in the building have rejected Arestovych's speculation.

"My husband and I often heard the air defence systems operating. This time it was not the air defence!" says Olha, a local resident of the building who fled from the apartment with her husband when the missile hit. "At about half past four there was one explosion, not two or three. [It was]A powerful explosion. I was sitting in the kitchen and I saw flames of fire and everything just fell down. I started screaming and I ran away from the apartment in my house clothes," Olha recalls.

According to InformNapalm, a network of hacker investigators, the order to strike the apartment block in Dnipro was given by Russian war criminal Oleg Timoshin, commander of the 52nd Guards Heavy Bomber Air Force Regiment. Timoshin was also in charge of the missile strike on the Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk, Poltava Oblast in June 2022.

People in Dnipro say that the tragedy of 14 January has strengthened their hatred towards Russia.

"When will Putin have drunk his fill of human blood? What an unbelievable bastard," says local resident Liubov, adding, "Hatred for Russia is stronger than fear."

United in pain

Volunteers and ordinary citizens came together within hours of the tragedy. Dnipro residents brought food, water, medicines and warm clothes to the invincibility centres [warm-up points with Internet access and coffee; thousands of such points have been established all over Ukrainian-controlled territory – ed.].

Local authorities organised places where people can get warm, and volunteers helped with food and hot tea, as well as legal advice and mental health support.

"In the first few hours after the blast, our unit started to provide first aid to people who had suffered from the explosion," said Liudmyla Lashko, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Department of the Red Cross.

"We have a doctor, a lawyer and a psychologist on duty. Our rapid response team is on duty around the perimeter of the explosion. And we welcome help from the local population."

In particular, places for people to spend the night have been organised. 

"People are so united in this tragedy that we are now asking them not to bring any more donations because we don’t know who to give them to," said one of the local volunteers in Dnipro.

"I have mixed feelings looking at this tragedy," says Ksenia, who lives not far from the destroyed building. "On the one hand, I feel really sorry for the people who have been killed and injured, but on the other hand, I admire our ability to come together and help each other."

Viktoriia Roshchyna

Translated by Olha Loza, Tetiana Buchkovska, Artem Yakymyshyn

Edited by Teresa Pearce