Ukrainian president says children, including 3-year-old, among those rescued

By Anadolu Agency 

ISTANBUL

The death toll rose to 21 from a Russian missile strike in eastern Ukraine, local authorities in Ukraine said early Sunday.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, said on Telegram that 21 people were killed and 74 were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Saturday.

Earlier, Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote “20 innocent victims ...” in a message on Telegram, while online newspaper Kyiv Independent, citing Reznichenko, previously reported that missiles that hit an apartment building in Dnipro killed at least 14, including a 15-year-old.

An earlier report by Ukraine’s Emergency Service said 73 people were wounded in the attack, including 14 children, and at least 59 others hospitalized.

Thirty-eight people were rescued during the initial response to the attack, while search and rescue operations continue, it also said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Russia’s “heavy missile attack on Ukrainian cities” in a statement.

“Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Ladyzhyn, Burshtyn, Lviv region, Khmelnytskyi and other cities were targets of terrorists,” said Zelenskyy.

“In the city of Dnipro, a residential building has been destroyed in this Russian strike,” he said. “An ordinary nine-story panel building, of which there are quite a few in various cities of Eastern and Central Europe. All floors of this building – from the second to the ninth – were smashed in the explosion of a Russian missile.”

Zelenskyy also said dozens of “wounded, traumatized people” were rescued and they are being treated.

“Among them are children, the youngest girl is three years old,” he added.

*Burc Eruygur contributed to this story