Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his anger on Monday and called for Moscow to be punished, laying red roses at the ruins of an apartment building in Kiev where Russian missile strikes killed 24 people, including three children, on Sunday, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Emergency workers have finished searching the rubble of the building, which lasted more than a day, Zelensky wrote in Ex.
The cruise missile hit the nine-story building in the largest Russian attack since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian air force said.
The attack was mainly aimed at the Ukrainian capital, where injuries were reported 48 people, including two children, Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said hundreds of rescuers took part in a 28-hour operation to search for survivors in 3,000 cubic meters of debris. Authorities in Kiev said teams had managed to rescue about 30 people and pulled 24 bodies from the rubble. About 50 were injured and nearly 400 people needed psychological help.
Kiev is observing an official day of mourning for the victims today.
The cruise missile that hit the apartment building was manufactured in the second quarter of this year, Zelensky said, citing Ukrainian experts who examined its remains. According to initial analyses, it is a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.
“This means that Russia is still importing components, resources and equipment necessary for the production of missiles and to circumvent global sanctions“, Zelensky wrote in another of his posts in Ex. "Stopping Russia's schemes to circumvent sanctions must be a real priority for all our partners," he added.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Moscow's forces carried out massive air strikes against Ukraine between May 12 and 15.
Moscow denies targeting civilians, but Russian forces have frequently hit residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure across Ukraine in the more than four-year war.
The Ukrainian military has also carried out drone attacks against Russia, Reuters reported.
Four people, including a child, were killed in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Ryazan on Monday. The attack hit a high-rise apartment building and an industrial plant, the governor of the Ryazan region said.
Ukraine said it had struck an oil refinery in Ryazan.