Kyiv: 'Toddler killed in deliberate Russian strike on Ukrainian city'

By Stefan J. Bos

As the war continued Sunday, rescue teams searched through rubble after a suspected Russian airstrike hit a residential district in Ukraine's central city of Dnipro. Some were seen digging with their bare hands in the hope of finding survivors.  

But a two-year-old girl was already found dead here beneath the rubble of a house after authorities said Russian missiles struck this residential area. Officials said over 20 people, including children, were injured in the strikes that destroyed several buildings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the blast in Dnipro as "a deliberate" Russian strike.

Despite evidence of destroyed non-military sites such as homes, hospitals, schools, and churches, Moscow has denied targeting civilians in its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Explosions have also been heard over Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, where air defense systems have again been deployed.

But a senior Ukrainian government official has expressed "disbelief" after learning that nearly half of Kyiv bomb shelters inspected so far were closed or unfit for use.

Besides Kyiv, the entire country was under air raid alerts amid relentless Russian missile strikes.

But Moscow has accused Ukraine of counter-attacks beyond its borders, including in Russia's Belgorod region.

Local authorities said Ukrainian forces shelled a market area in the town of Shebekino, about 7 km or 4 miles from the Ukrainian border, but no one was injured.

A group of pro-Ukraine Russian fighters also claimed to have taken two Russian soldiers captive in the area and offered to exchange them in a meeting with the regional governor.

Separately Russia said five Ukrainian drones were shot down, and four were jammed and did not hit their targets in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

There was some damage, but no casualties were reported in the attack in the city of that Kyiv claims has been turned into Moscow's most extensive military base in Crimea.

The attacks underscore broader international concerns that Europe's bloodiest conflict this century is rapidly escalating and far from over. 

Indonesia's defense minister on Saturday proposed a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, calling for a demilitarised zone and a United Nations referendum in what he called disputed territory.