By Yurii Kovalenko and Olena Harmash
KYIV, May 15 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Friday for Moscow to be punished after laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children.
Rescue workers ended search operations at the devastated building, which was struck on Thursday during Russia’s heaviest air attack on the Ukrainian capital this year.
“Our first responders … worked non-stop for more than a day,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app after visiting the site in Kyiv’s Darnytskyi district, on the left bank of the Dnipro River, laying flowers and talking to rescue workers.
“The Russians practically levelled an entire section of the building with their missile,” he said.
Russia, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, had launched more than 1,500 drones and dozens of missiles at targets in Ukraine over two consecutive days, according to Ukrainian officials.
Six people were also killed in western Ukraine, far from the front line.
DAY OF MOURNING IN KYIV FOR APARTMENT BLOCK STRIKE
“A Russia like this can never be normalised – a Russia that deliberately destroys lives and hopes to remain unpunished. Pressure is needed,” Zelenskiy said, reiterating appeals to allies to help Ukraine strengthen its air defences.
Moscow’s Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out massive strikes on Ukraine on May 12-15, the Russian state news agency RIA reported.
Kyiv officials declared Friday a day of mourning, with national flags at half-mast across the city of 3 million. All entertainments were cancelled or postponed.
Residents brought flowers, stuffed animals and sweets to a makeshift memorial at the destroyed housing block.
The Interior Ministry said hundreds of rescuers had sifted through 3,000 cubic metres of rubble in 28 hours of searching.
City officials said 24 bodies had been recovered and about 30 people rescued alive. Nearly 50 people were wounded, and about 400 required psychological support, the ministry said.
“My friend lived on the second floor. They found her around 7 p.m. – I don’t remember exactly – along with her husband,” said Tetiana Prudyus, 34, who had brought red roses.
“I know a lot of people here … I want to say one thing,” she said, holding back tears. “Even after this, we won’t surrender. We’re a very strong nation.”
Zelenskiy has said initial analysis shows the building was hit by a recently made Russian Kh-101 missile.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians but during more than four years of war it has frequently hit residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure all over Ukraine.
Ukraine has also carried out drone attacks on Russia. Four people, including a child, were killed in an attack on the central Russian city of Ryazan on Friday that damaged high-rise apartment buildings and hit an unnamed industrial enterprise, the regional governor said.
Ukraine said it had struck a Russian oil refinery in Ryazan.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Kevin Liffey)
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