On 14 January 2023 at about 3:30p.m., a Russian Kh-22 missile struck a nine-story residential building in

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

, Ukraine, on , 118, Sobornyi District in the right-bank part of the city, destroying one entrance and 236 apartments. On 19 January the official casualty rate was stated as 46 people killed (including 6 children) and 80 injured (12 in critical condition) and 11 people reported missing. 14 children were reported injured, and 39 inhabitants were rescued. The destruction left about 400 people homeless. The strike was part of months-long campaign of Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure that also had hit Dnipro. This strike became the most destructive Russian attack on a residential building in Ukraine in the last six months.В Днепре из-за ракетного удара погибли 40 человек, больше 70 пострадали. Зеленский призвал россиян перестать «трусливо молчать»
/ref> A three-day period of mourning was declared in Dnipro.

Timeline

A local air alert began at 2:00 p.m.

Ukrainian Air Defence Forces The Ukrainian Air Defence Forces ( uk, Війська протиповітряної оборони України) were an anti-aircraft military service of Ukraine, active from 1992 to 2004. They were established on the basis of the former Sovi ...

claimed it shot down 6 of 8 missiles over

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Dnipropetrovsk Oblast ( uk, Дніпропетро́вська о́бласть, translit=Dnipropetrovska oblast), also referred to as Dnipropetrovshchyna ( uk, Дніпропетро́вщина), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, obla ...

. An explosion was heard at approximately 3:41 p.m., when a Kh-22 missile hit a multi-storey building at , 118, Sobornyi District, Dnipro. At the moment, Ukraine does not have air defense systems to intercept such Kh-22 missiles. From the start of the February

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

(already) 210 rockets of this type had been fired on Ukraine with none being shot down by air defenses. Initially it was reported that the attack had killed 20 people (including a 15-year-old girl) and injured 73 (including 14 children; the youngest three years old; a 9-year-old girl was reported to be in serious condition). Nothing was known about the fate of another 26 people. A 23-year old woman, who was in a state of shock in the bathroom on the seventh floor, survived the attack but lost her parents. On 15 January the State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported that 23 people had been killed by a Russian missile strike on the building. By 1:15p.m. (the next day) 43 reports of missing persons had been received, 72 people sustained injuries, including 13 children, and 39 were rescued. In the afternoon of 15 January

Ukrainian President The president of Ukraine ( uk, Президент України, Prezydent Ukrainy) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, condu ...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

on Telegram expressed his condolences to the families of 25 people who were killed in the attack. In the morning of 16 January

Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast The Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is the head of executive branch for the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The office of Governor is an appointed position, with officeholders being appointed by the President of Ukraine, on recommendation from the Prim ...

Valentyn Reznichenko Valentyn Mykhaylovych Reznichenko ( uk, Валентин Михайлович Резніченко; born on 22 April 1972), is a Ukrainian government official who is since 11 December 2020 Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. 236 apartments were destroyed. The search and rescue operation was called off on Tuesday 17, when the death toll stood at 44 including five children. 79 people had been injured and 39 rescued. Among the victims was

Mykhailo Korenovsky The ''Ukraine Yellow Kitchen Photo'' is a 2023 photo by Yan Dobronosov that captures the aftermath of the 2023 Dnipro residential building airstrike that hit the home of boxing coach Mykhailo Korenovsky. It was widely shared online in January 202 ...

the head coach of Ukraine's national boxing team from

Weapon

The missile that struck the building was a Kh-22 anti-ship missile, the same type used in an attack on a shopping center in Kremenchuk on 27 June 2022. Ukrainian Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General

Mykola Oleschuk Mykola Mykolayovych Oleschuk ( uk, Микола Миколайович Олещук; born 25 May 1972) is a Ukrainian three-star general who has served as the Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force since 9 August 2021. Biography He was born ...

, said that the Ukrainian army at the time of the incident had no weapons to shoot down such missiles, and that during the year of full-scale war, out of 210 Kh-22 missiles launched in Ukraine, not a single one was shot down. Oleshchuk called earlier reports about the downing of such missiles unreliable and erroneous. Russia launched five Kh-22 missiles across Ukraine on 14 January.

Investigation

On 15 January 2023, the office of the

Prosecutor General of Ukraine The prosecutor general of Ukraine (also procurator general of Ukraine, uk, Генеральний прокурор України) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General ( uk, Офіс ...

states that the attack could only have been carried out by the 52nd Guards Aviation Regiment based in Shaikivka. The same day, a list of military personnel directly involved in the missile launch was published on the Molfar Global website ( OSINT community) in which 44 out of 52 people from the 52nd Guards Aviation Regiment were named. This was the same regiment that struck the Amstor shopping centre in Kremenchuk on June 27, 2022. On 16 January 2023, the

Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( uk, Служба безпеки України, translit=Sluzhba bezpeky Ukrainy}) or SBU ( uk, СБУ, link=no) is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainian ...

(SBU) confirmed the participation of the military of the 52nd Aviation Regiment of the Russian Federation in the missile attack. It singled out six Russian soldiers in particular.

Reactions

said the Russian attack targeted civilian apartment blocks and as result was a war crime.Russian Strike Destroys Apartment Building in Dnipro, Killing 14
,

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

(14 January 2023) In his daily evening appeal of 15 January President Zelenskyy addressed the

Russian citizen Russian citizenship law details the conditions by which a person holds citizenship of Russia. The primary law governing citizenship requirements is the federal law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation", which came into force on 1 July 2002. ...

s who had not spoken out against Russia's military invasion of Ukraine in Russian stating: "Your cowardly silence, an attempt to ride out what is happening, will end with these same terrorists coming for you one day." The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

called the images coming out from the aftermath of the attack "horrifying". The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the attack a war crime and noted that it indicates Russia's intention to escalate the war.

President of Lithuania The President of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidentas) is the head of state of Lithuania. The officeholder has been Gitanas Nausėda since 12 July 2019. Powers The president has somewhat more executive authority tha ...

Gitanas Nausėda stated that Russia would definitely bear responsibility for attacks on peaceful cities. On January 14 a three-day mourning was declared in Dnipro. The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed their responsibility for the missile strikes in Dnipro. However,

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

's press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that Russian forces never attack residential buildings and that the residential building had probably collapsed because of a Ukrainian air defense counterattack. Dnipro mayor

Borys Filatov Borys Albertovych Filatov ( uk, Борис Альбертович Філатов; born 7 March 1972, in Dnipropetrovsk) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian politician, journalist, lawyer, businessman, and the current Mayor of Dnipro. In 2014 Ukrainian parlia ...

said that the Russians might have intended to target a nearby

thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...

Memorials

An impromptu memorial to the victims of the attack appeared in Moscow as people brought flowers to the statue of

Lesya Ukrainka Lesya Ukrainka ( uk, Леся Українка ; born Larysa Petrivna Kosach, uk, Лариса Петрівна Косач; – ) was one of Ukrainian literature's foremost writers, best known for her poems and plays. She was also an active ...

. The police detained some of them.

References

External links

* {{2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine January 2023 events in Ukraine Airstrikes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine Attacks on buildings and structures in Ukraine History of Dnipro War crimes during the Russian invasion of Ukraine Airstrikes conducted by Russia