United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned a Russian missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro, Central Ukraine.
The latest missile attack left at least 40 people dead, making it one of the deadliest single attacks of the war.
The missile flattened all nine storeys in a section of the long concrete housing unit.
Rescue workers shovelled through debris more than 48 hours after the attack.
Dozens more are missing, making it the deadliest civilian incident of Moscow’s three-month campaign of firing missiles at cities far from the front.
The UN spokesperson said: “Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law. They must end immediately.”
Ukraine says the mass civilian deaths, which it describes as terrorism, demonstrate why it needs more weapons to defeat Russian forces 11 months after they invaded. Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians.
Russia, which since October has been conducting large scale strikes on Ukrainian cities mainly targeting power generation infrastructure, said it was not to blame for the destruction in Dnipro as it was caused by Ukrainian air defences.
Kyiv says the apartment building was hit by a Russian ship-to-ship missile, a type that Ukraine does not have the capability to shoot down.
“We all live in buildings like this one and we all imagine what if it happened to us. It is awful,” said Polina, 28, a resident of the neighbourhood.
Officials acknowledged little hope of finding anyone else alive in the rubble of Saturday’s attack in the central city of Dnipro, but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the rescue operation would go on “as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives”.
“Dozens of people were rescued from the rubble, including six children. We are fighting for every person!” Zelenskiy said in an overnight televised address.
Zelenskiy, speaking later in his nightly video address, said the Dnipro attack underscored the need to speed up decisions on arms supplies and “coordinate all the efforts of the coalition defending Ukraine and freedom.”
He expects key decisions by Ukraine’s allies when they meet in Germany later this week, he added.
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned on Monday as her government came under rising pressure to let allies send Ukraine German heavy tanks, at the start of what looks like a pivotal week for Western plans to further arm Kyiv.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and about a quarter of the population have fled their homes.
Ukraine says a key to breaking the stalemate would be Western battle tanks and armoured vehicles as these would give its forces the capability to break through Russian lines.
Western countries have so far stopped short of sending tanks, loath to provoke the Kremlin which claims Ukraine is fighting on behalf of a broader Western plot to destroy Russia.
The tank taboo was finally broken at the weekend by Britain pledging a first squadron of Challengers to Kyiv. On Monday it confirmed the supply of 14 Challenger 2 tanks and other hardware including hundreds more armoured vehicles and advanced air defence missiles “to accelerate Ukrainian success”.
