Reportage

Ukraine: in Dnipro, in the heart of the rubble, the inhabitants let their anger burst

Audio 01:13

Rescuers are working in the remains of the building hit by a missile in Dnipro.

President Zelensky said relief workers were working tirelessly to save lives.

© AP - Evgeniy Maloletka

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

The human toll has further increased in Dnipro in Ukraine the day after the Russian missile strike which devastated a residential building on Sunday 15 January.

We deplore 35 dead.

Thirty-nine people were rescued, 75 were injured 

," Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on social media.

He said the fate of 35 other residents of the building was still " 

unknown

 ".

President Zelensky said relief workers were working tirelessly to save lives.  

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In a nightgown, barely covered with a coat, Elena, in her sixties, sobs, tell our special correspondents in Dnipro, 

Aabla Jounaïdi

 and 

Boris Vichith

.

She imagines the worst for her friend Oxana and her daughter.

They live in the collapsed building: “

 Our children grew up here, in this courtyard together.

Oxana has already lost her husband.

Yesterday she went to work.

And her 10-year-old daughter was home.

 »

“ 

I love Ukraine 

These words, Elena tells us in Russian.

But today, less than ever, she doesn't want to hear Vladimir Putin set himself up as a defender of Russian speakers: “ 

He, the saviour?

I want him to die.

I speak Ukrainian badly because I was born in Russia, in Rostov.

But my whole life is here.

I want to say it: I love Ukraine.

I believe in our victory 

, ”she says again.

“ 

Why does my granddaughter have to be afraid of mermaids

?

 »

“ 

May my relatives in Russia hear our pain.

They don't talk to me anymore.

They don't understand what's going on here.

Why do our children have to live in fear?

In the cellar, under the bombs, and see all that?

Why should my granddaughter be afraid of mermaids?

“, she exclaims again.

A plea dropped in a last sob.

While smoking ruins, a survivor has just been extirpated by the emergency services. 

►Also read

: Ukraine: after a Russian strike on a building in Dnipro, the difficult search for survivors

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  • Ukraine

  • Russia

  • Defense

  • Vladimir Poutine

  • Volodymyr Zelensky