Russian missile strike on apartment building in Ukraine's Dnipro kills dozens as battle for Bakhmut rages
Kharkiv, Ukraine — It was a bloody weekend in Ukraine. After a couple weeks of relative calm in the skies, Russia's military resumed its devastating aerial assault, either firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, or deliberately targeting people's homes to spread terror.
Dozens of people were killed and many more wounded in just one brutal attack on a massive apartment building in the city of Dnipro. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the search for survivors after the Saturday missile strike went on all weekend, with at least 30 people killed and as many more missing under the vast pile of rubble.
The youngest confirmed victim was a girl just 15 years old.
"Why are people dying? Why kill them?" resident Valentyna begged to know as she and other survivors of the strike consoled each other.
Many people were inside the apartment block when Russia launched two waves of missile strikes.
Haunting images emerged all weekend of rescuers working day and night to find survivors amid the crumbled concrete, glass and steel. They'd pause now and then to listen for voices beneath the rubble.
Anastasia Shvets, 23, was one of the lucky ones whose voice carried over the dust and din to reach the rescuers' ears. She was in the bathroom of her 7th floor apartment when the missile struck.
Shvets had already lost her husband on the front lines of the war against Russia's invaders. Now her home, far from the battlefield, has been taken, too.
Katerina, another young resident of the building, was pulled alive from the rubble more than 18 hours after the attack. But as each hour passed, hope of finding more survivors grew dimmer.
For the Russian Defense Ministry, it was mission accomplished. It said Russia's military goals had been achieved with the weekend strikes.
As missiles pounded cities across Ukraine, ground fighting intensified in the fiercely contested towns of Soledar and Bakhmut. Ukrainian soldiers are battling to hold onto the neighboring towns, which sit right on the edge of Russian-occupied territory.
They're also fighting for their lives, up against a relentless onslaught of Russian mercenaries from what's known as the Wagner group, a private army run by an ally of President Vladimir Putin. Many of the fighters have been recruited from prisons across Russia, with the promise of release after they serve in Putin's war on Ukraine.
The deadly missile strikes over the weekend and the grinding battle for the front-line towns in the eastern Donbas region gave Ukrainian officials another grim example to point to as they ask supporters in the U.S. and Europe for more support, and more weapons.
As part of that support, the U.S. military has expanded its direct combat training of Ukrainian troops, with a new program starting in Germany over the weekend. The goal, according to U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, is to get a battalion of about 500 Ukrainian troops fully trained and back on the battlefield within two months.
Milley was expected to visit the training area in Germany on Monday to see the efforts for himself. He told reporters traveling with him to Europe over the weekend that the training, along with new weapons, including Bradley armored fighting vehicles from the U.S., would be "really important for Ukraine to be able to defend itself."
In addition to the training and weapons from the U.S., Britain announced over the weekend that it would become the first NATO nation to send main battle tanks to Ukraine, promising 14 of its Challenger 2 tanks, as well as other advanced artillery.