Heartbreaking image shows woman in the rubble of Russian airstrike

Ukraine: Dnipro emergency services on scene after strike on flats

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

An extraordinary image of a young woman surrounded by the rubble of her own apartment after a Russian air strike has offered a chilling insight into the reality of Vladimir Putin’s war. The stark image shows Anastasia Shvets, 23, with her hands over her face in shock after a missile smashed into the block of flats where she lives in the eastern city of Dnipro.

The 23-year-old had been having a meal with her parents in her kitchen – but the airstrike hit the block while she was in the bathroom.

By the time she returned, there was no sign of her kitchen – or her parents.

Another picture showed her being led from the rubble, and she later shared snaps on Instagram from her hospital bed, still clutching a green dinosaur toy she had brought with her from her flat.

Writing to her followers, Ms Shvets, who appeared to have suffered minor wounds to her head and legs, said she had “no words… no emotions”.

She added: “I want to see my parents. I am in pain. Do I even exist?”

She also explained that her soldier husband was been killed fighting the Russians just months earlier.

She posted: ”I still can’t get over it’s been two weeks since I heard your voice and seen your smile.

“When was the last time you told me how much you loved me? Everything was in the end, all dreams and our goals.”

JUST IN: Ex-Wagner unit commander dodged shots while fleeing from Russia

The death toll from a weekend Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to 37, authorities said Monday, as western analysts identified signs the Kremlin was preparing for a drawn-out war in Ukraine after almost 11 months of fighting.

The victims from Saturday’s strike on the multi-story residential tower included two children, Ukraine’s National Police reported, and 15 children are among the 75 injured.

The rescue and search operation was ongoing, with 39 people, including six children, taken from the ruins so far, the police said in a statement.

About 1,700 people lived in the apartment building. Residents said there were no military facilities at the site.

The reported death toll made it the deadliest single attack on civilians since before the summer, according to The Associated Press-Frontline War Crimes Watch project.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called the strike, and others like it, “inhumane aggression” because it directly targeted civilians. He tweeted: “There will be no impunity for these crimes.

Asked about the strike Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the Russian military targeted residential buildings and suggested the Dnipro building was hit as a result of Ukrainian air defence actions.

The Ukrainian military said Sunday that it did not have the means to intercept the type of Russian missile used in Saturday’s strike.

The strike on the building came amid a wider barrage of Russian cruise missiles across Ukraine.

Fierce fighting continued to rage in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, where military analysts have said both sides are likely suffering heavy troop casualties. No independent verification of developments was possible.

Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk province make up the Donbas, an expansive industrial region bordering Russia which Russian President Vladimir Putin has identified as a focus from the war’s outset. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv’s forces there since 2014.

The Russian and Belarusian air forces began a joint exercise Monday in Belarus, which borders Ukraine and served as a staging ground for Russia’s February 24 invasion.

The drills are set to run through February 1, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said. Russia has sent its warplanes to Belarus for the drills.

Source: Read Full Article