Like a macabre deja vu. Ukrainian cities have been pounded one after the other by Russian air force since the invasion decided by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24. As in Syria, the gutted buildings, the destroyed houses, the hospitals blown up are the appalling images of the Putin-style war.
After the city of Mariupol where a hospital was targeted by air strikes, killing at least three people including a child, it is another large Ukrainian city, that of Dnipro, which was targeted this Friday, by the russian army air force. And the local media report this Saturday morning anti-bombing warning sirens on the whole of the Ukrainian territory, in particular the big cities Kiev, Odessa, Dnipro and Kharkiv.
Three airstrikes
Spared until now, Dnipro saw the transit of humanitarian aid destined for the badly affected areas of Mariupol. But on Friday, civilian areas were targeted, claiming one victim, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
A woman is seen behind the shattered window of a residential building damaged by an airstrike in Dnipro
(Photo by Emre CAYLAK / AFP)
“There were three airstrikes on the city, on a kindergarten, an apartment building and a shoe factory (…) where a fire then broke out”, said the services of Ukrainian emergencies. “I woke up at 5 a.m. and started calling all my friends. They told me that the bombs had hit the station, a crèche, homes, and even a factory,” says Alina. , a resident of the city, on RTL. There have been three explosions, one of which was very, very strong. I don’t know what to do, we have nowhere to go. I have three children, small, the oldest is 10 years old. Really, I don’t know what to do.”
Firefighters could be seen in footage extinguishing flames in smoldering ruins. Some buildings were nothing more than a pile of beams and twisted metal structures.
Firefighters spray water on a destroyed shoe factory following an airstrike in Dnipro.
(Photo by Emre CAYLAK / AFP)
“Targeting civilians, hospitals, schools is inexcusable” and the perpetrators of these acts “will have to be held accountable”, warned the UN on Friday during a meeting of its Security Council.
Civilian targets were shelled by the Russians in the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine.
(Photo by Handout / State Emergency Service of Ukraine / AFP)
This industrial city of one million inhabitants is also of primary strategic interest to the Russian army because it is located on the Dnieper, the river that marks the separation between the partly pro-Russian east of Ukraine and the rest of his territory.