Russian Missile Strikes Kill 25 in Ukraine

At least 25 civilians were killed in a wave of Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, as Kyiv said it was nearly ready to launch a huge assault to retake occupied land.

The attacks on the cities of Dnipro and Uman in the early hours of Friday were the first large-scale air raids in nearly two months.

Firefighters tackled a blaze at a residential apartment hit by a Russian missile in the central town of Uman and rescue workers clambered through a huge pile of smouldering rubble, searching for survivors and bodies as anxious people stood by.

Officials said at least 23 civilians were killed there, including four children.

Rescue workers carried a body away on a stretcher. A man wearing a face mask sobbed as he watched and a woman came to comfort him.

“No one is left,” said Serhii Lubivskyi, 58, who survived inside a flat on the seventh floor. He was rescued by firefighters from the balcony where he escaped with his wife after the explosion blocked their front door.

Lubivskyi wept as he took a deep drag from a cigarette and looked up at the smouldering gaps in the building where adjacent flats had been blasted away. “My neighbours are gone. No one is left,” he said. “Only the kitchens were left standing.”_Al Jazeera