The world still looks for answers one month after the Dnipro missile attack

On January 17th rescue workers combing through debris from a destroyed Dnipro apartment complex that housed 1700 called off their search for survivors.

The death toll for Russia's grisly missile attack was marked at 45 dead, including six children according to the Associated Press. But what happened in Dnipro and why does it still matter?

Since the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been targeting civilians and committing war crimes with reckless abandon. But Putin's attack against an apartment building in Dnipro was a bridge too far. 

Rescue workers have sifted through the debris of the ruined apartment complex, searching for signs of life from those who are still missing for days after the attack. 

On January 14th, a missile struck a nine-story apartment building in Dnipro, splitting the complex in half. 

More worrying than the attack itself was the munitions used to carry it out. Russian forces allegedly used a Kh-22 supersonic missile according to Ukrainian Air Forces spokesman Yurii Ihant.

While speaking during a press conference about the January 14th attacks, Ihant stated that "we see that another target was a residential building in Dnipro, which was hit by a Kh-22 missile." 

The Kh-22 supersonic cruise missile was originally designed as a long-range, anti-ship missile in the 1960s and is known for being “notoriously inaccurate" according to CNN. 

But Ukrainian officials had more to worry about than the Kh-22 missile's inaccuracies since the Ukrainian Air Force had no reliable means of combating the Kh-22 or shooting it down, a problem it still suffers from today.

"I emphasize that it is impossible to shoot down Kh-22 missiles with the means we have in our arsenal,” Ihnat told reporters during his press conference, a worrying sign for Ukraine’s civilian population. 

Svitlana Lishchynska lived in a neighboring building and was home when Russia’s anti-ship missile struck the apartment in Dnipro. She told reporters from CNN that the impact of the missile shook her entire home. 

“At the same moment, my daughter, who had gone for a walk with her friend, called and told me about the loud explosions,” Lishchynska told CNN, “I ran to her. The closer I got, the more it looked like [the abyss].”

“When I got there, I froze – the two entrances simply did not exist anymore. They had turned into a pile of concrete and a gaping hole. It was a picture of the apocalypse,” Lishchynska continued. 

“Everyone was in a kind of stupor, because it was impossible to believe that this was happening to us,” Lishchynska added. 

Unfortunately, more missile attacks like the one in Dnipro are likely to happen as Russia runs short on its cruise missile stocks and the war crosses the one-year mark. 

Global sanctions have only tightened the noose around Putin’s neck and it is unlikely he can walk away from his disastrous invasion of Ukraine without a significant victory, which is why Russia's most recent unforgivable attack should matter to you.