Live: Death toll from Dnipro apartment building strike rises to at least 25; 43 reported missing

17:01pm: NATO chief Stoltenberg says more heavy weaponry for Ukraine in ‘near future’

Ukraine can expect more deliveries of heavy weapons from Western countries soon, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with German media on Sunday.

“The recent pledges for heavy warfare equipment are important – and I expect more in the near future,” Stoltenberg told the Handelsblatt daily.

The comments come ahead of a meeting this week of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, which coordinates arms supplies to Kyiv, at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“We are in a decisive phase of the war,” Stoltenberg said. “Therefore, it is important that we provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win. … [Putin] overestimated the strength of his own armed forces. We see their missteps, their lack of morale, the leadership problems, the poor equipment,” he said, adding that the Russians “have demonstrated that they are prepared to take heavy losses to achieve their goals”.

3:41pm: Deaths reported after ammo explosion in Belgorod, Russia

Three people were killed and 13 injured in an ammunition explosion in Russia’s Belgorod region, RIA Novosti news agency reported on Sunday, citing local emergency services.

Authorities said earlier on Sunday that 10 Russian servicemen were injured in the blast in a cultural centre.

3:18pm: Deaths from strike on Dnipro apartment building rise to 25

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to 25 Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky reported as rescue workers scrambled to pull survivors from the rubble. 

Zelensky reported that at least 73 people were wounded and 39 people had been rescued as of Sunday afternoon. The city government in Dnipro said 43 people were reported missing. 

“Search and rescue operations and the dismantling of dangerous structural elements continues. Around the clock. We continue to fight for every life,” the Ukrainian leader said.

2:27pm: Mayor says ‘minimal’ chance of finding Dnipro survivors as death toll rises to 23

The chances are “minimal” of pulling more survivors from the wreckage of an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro that was hit by a Russian missile strike on Saturday, the city’s mayor told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.

The death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in the southeastern city of Dnipro rose to 23 by Sunday afternoon, the local government reported. In addition, at least 72 people have been reported wounded and 43 people missing. It said 39 people had been rescued from the rubble so far. 

1:43pm 10 Russian soldiers injured in blast in near Ukraine border, emergency services report

Ten Russian soldiers were injured in a blast in the Belgorod region, the TASS news agency reported on Sunday, citing emergency services.

TASS said the blast occurred in a cultural centre in the region, which borders Ukraine.

1:37pm: ‘They’re preparing themselves and so are we’: Ukrainian soldiers ready on northern front

Russian forces left northern Ukraine’s Sumy region in late March, but this part of the front line has never really gone quiet. “There were 55 strikes on this region in the last 24 hours, including a couple on our sector,” said Ukrainian soldier Andzhei. “According to our intelligence [the Russians] are building up positions that they could later use for offensive actions on this position,” added another Ukrainian soldier, Vadym. “So, they’re preparing themselves and so are we, and we are … letting them know that we’re here,” Vadym continued.

Ukraine insists that it will take back all of the currently occupied territories, but officials have also been saying that they expect to have to defend in the coming weeks and months against renewed Russian offensives on multiple fronts, perhaps including this one. FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reports from the front line. 

12:33pm: Putin says ‘positive dynamic’ in Russia’s Ukraine offensive

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed a “positive dynamic” in the Ukraine offensive on Sunday after Moscow claimed victory over the frontline city of Soledar, which Kyiv has denied.

“There is a positive dynamic, everything is developing according to plans,” Putin said, answering a question from a journalist on the special operation and Soledar, adding “I hope that our fighters will please us more than once again.”

10:35am: ‘Hard for Ukrainians to take’

“The scale of this attack in Dnipro – and also the power of those pictures that we’re seeing; the picture of that person on a higher floor in what seems to be the remains of her bathroom, waiting to be rescued in the ruins; other images, absolutely horrific, coming out of Dnipro – seem to have caused it to be particularly hard for the Ukrainians to take,” FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reported.

“The reaction is one of anger […] at Russia, and Russians in general. There’s a metro station in Kyiv called Friendship Among Peoples, implying friendship among Russian and Ukrainian peoples. It was announced yesterday that that metro station is going to be renamed. I don’t think that’s in reaction at the attack on Dnipro, but it’s a coincidence that shows you what the dominant feeling is in Ukraine at the moment.”

03:13

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)