Ukraine officials on Sunday stated which Russian military outfit they believe was responsible for the bombing of a high-rise apartment building in Dnipro that has led to more than two dozen deaths.
Ukraine's office of the Prosecutor General said it was Russia's 52nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment.
"According to preliminary information, the Kh-22 missile was used. This type of missile leads to the greatest human casualties, because the missile is extremely inaccurate, has a huge deviation. Therefore, the use of such weapons for targets in densely populated areas is clearly a war crime," the Ukraine office said in a Telegram post. "This type of rocket was used in Sergiivka and Kremenchuk. It can be launched by a single Russian unit - the 52nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment."
The Kh-22 missiles were largely responsible for massive destruction and deaths Saturday in Dnipro, located in the contentious Eastern Ukraine, where Russia has already occupied many territories and battles to save that territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday released a video that showed a nine-story apartment in Dnipro that had been reduced to rubble, killing at least five people.
"Eternal memory to all whose lives were taken by [Russian] terror! The world must stop evil. Debris clearance in Dnipro continues. All services are working. We're fighting for every person, every life. We'll find everyone involved in terror. Everyone will bear responsibility. Utmost," Zelensky wrote.
Eternal memory to all whose lives were taken by 🇷🇺 terror! The world must stop evil. Debris clearance in Dnipro continues. All services are working. We're fighting for every person, every life. We'll find everyone involved in terror. Everyone will bear responsibility. Utmost. pic.twitter.com/zG4rIF8nzC
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 14, 2023
The City of Dnipro issued a three-day mourning period to honor the 29 people killed in the rocket attacks on Saturday.
The Prosecutor General's office called the attacks a crime against humanity since it was nowhere near a military facility.
"This tragedy is not just a war crime, it is a crime against humanity. A large-scale killing of civilians in Ukraine," the office stated. "Every important piece of evidence will be documented. The investigation and prosecutors will establish and bring to justice both those who directly launched the missiles and their commanders who gave this criminal order. The entire Russian military leadership."
On Saturday night, Ukraine stated it does not have sufficient equipment to down missiles like the Kh-22, or X-22, like the ones used in Dnipro.
"In the Armed Forces of Ukraine there are no fire devices capable of shooting down this type of missile. Since the beginning of Russian military aggression on Ukraine, more than 210 missiles of this type have been launched. None of them are knocked down by air defense equipment," said Lieutenant General Nikolai Oleshuk, Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukraine does have defense systems that can decipher that these are Kh-22 missiles, but not the capability to shoot them down.
"Only anti-aircraft missile complexes that can in the future be provided to Ukraine by Western partners (systems such as Patriot PAC-3 or SAMP-T), are capable of intercepting data air targets," Oleshuk said.
The United States has promised Patriot Missile Defense systems to Ukraine, per a meeting with Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden late in 2022. Other western European nations have also pledged similar air defense systems.
