HomeEmergencyRescuers scour rubble as Kyiv mourns deadliest Russian attack this year

Rescuers scour rubble as Kyiv mourns deadliest Russian attack this year

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By Vladyslav Smilianets

KYIV, July 3 (Reuters) - Rescuers ‌sifted through rubble in a search for survivors in Kyiv on Friday ​as the Ukrainian capital observed a day of mourning, a day after a Russian missile and drone attack killed at least 30 ⁠people in the deadliest strike on the city this year.

The attack also wounded 92 people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The parents of a 10-year-old boy who was hospitalised after the strike, along with a 15-year-old girl, ​remained unaccounted for.

Separately, a Russian drone attack on a house in the northern Sumy region killed four people, including a woman ‌and her toddler daughter, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

Flags flew at half-mast across Kyiv as rescue teams worked for a second day in the city. Forensic experts were also working to identify recovered remains.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 10 ⁠people were still missing, with rescue operations continuing at three locations.

'NO LONGER LIVEABLE'

As excavators cleared ⁠debris, residents searched for belongings among the wreckage and laid flowers.

"We were praying to God that we would remain unharmed," said Zoia, a 65-year-old pensioner whose apartment was damaged in the strike.

Tetiana Pryvalova, 27, another Kyiv resident, said a blast had blown out the windows and doors of her apartment.

"Part of the wall was ‌broken through during the rescue of a woman," she said. "The apartment is no longer liveable, and neither is ⁠the building as you can see."

The scale of destruction across the capital had ‌little precedent even in a war now in its fifth year. ​Zelenskiy said more than 100 residential buildings had been damaged.

In recent months, Ukraine has slowed Russian advances on the 1,200-km front line, and has retaken territory in some areas.

"Russia has no argument left for its ‌war other than its ballistic missiles," Zelenskiy said in his evening address on ​Thursday.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin still intends to 'vanquish' ⁠residential buildings rather than end this war."

On Friday, Russia's defence ministry said its troops had ‌captured the village of Oleksandrivka in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region.

Moscow ⁠said the attack on Kyiv was in retaliation for Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia.

Ukraine has stepped up long-range attacks inside Russia, focusing largely on energy infrastructure and military-related targets but also damaging civilian sites.

Strikes on oil refineries ​have triggered a fuel crisis in ‌Russia, forcing the world's third-biggest oil producer to import gasoline.

Russia has responded with a stepped-up air campaign against Ukrainian ⁠cities, last month hitting a 1,000-year-old Kyiv cathedral ​foundational to the Orthodox faith in both countries.

Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka in ​Gdansk; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Ros Russell)

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