By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi By — Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa Cebrián Aranda Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/russian-strike-kills-dozens-of-civilians-as-western-nations-pledge-more-aid-to-ukraine Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio The death toll from a Russian strike in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to 40, with dozens still missing. The rescue efforts continue, but officials acknowledge little hope of finding anyone alive. It was one of the deadliest single incidents of the war and comes at the beginning of a pivotal week for Western efforts to provide Ukraine with heavy weapons, including tanks. Nick Schifrin reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Nick Schifrin: Today, the death toll from a Russian strike in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to 40, with dozens still missing.It was one of the deadliest single incidents of the war and comes at the beginning of a pivotal week for Western efforts to provide Ukraine heavy weapons, including tanks. Rescue efforts in Dnipro continue, but officials acknowledge that there is little hope of finding anyone alive.In the residential building that is torn in two, death is still far too easy to find. Today, emergency workers hoped to rescue the injured. So far, they have only needed body bags. Across the street, a makeshift memorial. In a war that has already caused so much destruction and stolen even the most innocent, neighbors wonder why they survived and can only hope their prayers protect the dead. Speaker (through translator): All of us could be in that place, people, children. Nick Schifrin: Saturday's strike buried hundreds of people under the rubble. The Russian missile hit in the middle of a residential neighborhood, one of Russia's deadliest attacks on civilians in nearly 11 months of war.It struck at night, the massive apartment complex it hit obliterated, the pain of a mother who watched her son die unspeakable. Speaker (through translator): What did you kill him for? What did you do to my son? May you be damned for the whole of your lives by everybody, by me personally and by all the mothers' tears. Nick Schifrin: The attack coincided with the Orthodox new year celebrated by both Ukrainians and Russians. Online, Ukrainians post videos of families inside the apartment building before and the same kitchen after it was ripped open.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it terrorism and said Ukraine would not lose hope. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President (through translator): We fighting for every person. The rescue operation will last as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives. Nick Schifrin: And he used the attack to once again criticize Russians for not criticizing the war enough. Volodymyr Zelenskyy (through translator): I want to say to all those in Russia and from Russia, your cowardly silence, your attempt to wait out what is happening will only end with the same terrorists coming for you one day. Nick Schifrin: Today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the building was actually struck by a Ukrainian missile.Dmitry Peskov, Spokesman for Vladimir Putin (through translator): The Russian armed forces do not strike neither residential buildings nor the sites of civilian infrastructure. The strikes are aimed at military targets. Nick Schifrin: To strengthen its military, Ukraine has asked for Western tanks to upgrade its mostly Soviet era armor. And now, for the first time, the West will provide them.This weekend, the United Kingdom announced it will send 14 Challenger 2 tanks. Today, in Parliament, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the tanks would help Ukraine achieve — quote — "victory." And he urged Germany to send its tanks, the Leopard 2, which Ukraine has prioritized. Ben Wallace, British Defense Secretary: There's a debate in Germany at the moment about whether a tank is an offensive weapon or defensive weapon. Well, it depends on what you're using it for. If you're using it to defend your country, I would wager that it is a defensive weapon system.Gen. Philip Breedlove (RET.), Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander: They have better battlefield mobility. They bring more firepower and, most importantly, they bring much more sophisticated targeting capabilities, allowing them to shoot and kill first on the battlefield. Nick Schifrin: Retired General Philip Breedlove is the former supreme allied commander of NATO and the U.S.' top European commander.Tactically, how much of a difference can 14 British tanks really make to the Ukrainian army? Gen. Philip Breedlove: Tactically, very little. But in breaking that policy hold on this kind of equipment, we hope now that nations will begin to supply more sufficient numbers that will then have a big effect on the battlefield. Nick Schifrin: Poland has promised to send its Leopards, and Finland could follow if Germany gives approval. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki: Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish Prime Minister: The battle for our freedom, our future is raging as we speak. And if we have been investing for years in heavy war equipment, in tanks, they must not be left to rest in storehouses, but be placed in the hands of Europe's defenders. Nick Schifrin: Ukraine urges the U.S. to follow with its M1A1 Abrams tanks. And Breedlove and others urge the U.S. to go further and send longer-range systems the administration has so far blocked, for fear of escalating the war.Do you think Washington should be afraid of escalation? Gen. Philip Breedlove: Well, to say that we shouldn't consider it and think about it would be foolish, but to be deterred by it, which I believe we are, in a large way deterred by this fear, that is a problem.The bottom line is, right now, speed is of the essence. Nick Schifrin: But, right now, there's little Ukraine can do to prevent Russian strikes on civilians. And so Ukrainians fear they face more days like today. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Jan 16, 2023 By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi is a foreign affairs producer, based in Washington DC. She's a Columbia Journalism School graduate with an M.A. in Political journalism. She was one of the leading members of the NewsHour team that won the 2024 Peabody award for News for our coverage of the war in Gaza and Israel. @Zebaism By — Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa Cebrián Aranda Teresa is a Producer on the Foreign Affairs & Defense Unit at PBS NewsHour. She writes and produces daily segments for the millions of viewers in the U.S. and beyond who depend on PBS NewsHour for timely, relevant information on the world’s biggest issues. She’s reported on authoritarianism in Latin America, rising violence in Haiti, Egypt’s crackdown on human rights, Israel’s judicial reforms and China’s zero-covid policy, among other topics. Teresa also contributed to the PBS NewsHour’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, which was named recipient of a duPont-Columbia Award in 2023, and was part of a team awarded with a Peabody Award for the NewsHour’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.