After the rocket hit a house in Dnipro, the death toll continues to rise. Relatives share the stories of the victims on social media.
After a rocket hit a residential building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the Ukrainian authorities have revised the number of fatalities upwards again: 40 fatalities were counted by Monday afternoon, including three children.
30 people are still missing, says a representative of the city administration via the short message service Telegram. 75 people were injured, including 14 children. The search for survivors continued almost 40 hours after the impact.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday that the rescue operation would continue “as long as there is even the slightest chance of saving lives”. Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov told Reuters: “The chances of finding any more survivors are minimal.”
The people behind the death numbers
One of the fatalities is 15-year-old Maria Lebid, according to Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. Gerashchenko tweeted the girl’s sister: “My 15-year-old super-smart, super-talented and super-funny sister is gone (a rocket hit our home).”
According to Gerashchenko, boxing trainer Mykhailo Korenowsky also died in the rocket impact. His wife and children were out during the rocket attack, and Korenowsky actually intended to go to them.
In a video that Gerashchenko shared on Twitter, the boxing coach’s kitchen can be seen – before and after the rocket hit. The video shows a shot of Korenowsky’s daughter celebrating her birthday and blowing out candles on a cake. A photo is embedded in the bottom right of the video showing the living space that has now been destroyed.
A Twitter user also shared a photo showing Korenowsky’s kitchen – easily recognizable by its yellow color – after the rocket hit. She wrote: “We often report numbers in tragedies like Dnipro, but behind every number there are people who were torn into the nightmare by a Russian missile.”
Numerous dead and missing
Ukrainian reporter Maria Avdeeva tweeted a photo of two women who are said to have died in the Russian missile attack. It is said to be friends Olha Usova and Irina Salamatenko. According to Avdeeva, the two women worked as doctors and are both mothers.
Avdeeva also shared photos of the destroyed apartment block on Twitter, showing a woman huddled amidst the rubble. The BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford writes in a tweet that the woman’s name is Anastasia. Her boyfriend apparently died fighting for Ukraine in September, and her parents are still missing after the weekend’s rocket attack.
