Live: Death toll rises from strike on tower block in Ukraine’s Dnipro

Issued on: 15/01/2023 – 09:39

9:03am: Toll from strike on tower block in Dnipro rises to 20, Ukrainian official says

The death toll rose to at least 20 on Sunday after a strike on a residential building in Dnipro Saturday, a city in centre-east Ukraine, the Ukrainian regional governor said.

“Twenty innocent victims…” Dnipropetrovsk governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on messaging app Telegram, after posting that 73 were wounded and that “the rescue operation continues. The fate of more than 40 people remains unknown.”

1:04am: Britain becomes first country to send heavy tanks to Ukraine

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday pledged to provide 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, making it the first Western country to supply the heavy tanks Kyiv has been calling for.

The pledge saw a swift reaction from Russia which warned it would only “intensify” the conflict. “Bringing tanks to the conflict zone, far from drawing the hostilities to a close, will only serve to intensify combat operations, generating more casualties, including among the civilian population”, the Russian embassy in the UK said.

Sunak said the tanks were a sign of the UK’s “ambition to intensify our support to Ukraine”, according to a readout of a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s European allies have sent Kyiv more than 300 modernised Soviet tanks since Russia invaded in February 2022. But they have so far held off on dispatching the Western-made heavy tanks that Ukraine has repeatedly requested to push forward against Russian invaders.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)