Guided bombs hit Dnipro: private houses destroyed, people may be trapped

What happened

Overnight into Monday, 19 October, Russian forces struck the city of Dnipro. According to Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, private houses were damaged. “According to preliminary information, people may be trapped inside. All services are working at the scene,” he wrote.

Hanzha also said an 84-year-old woman was hurt in the attack and taken to hospital by medics.

What was used

The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, Mykola Lukashuk, said Russia attacked the city with guided aerial bombs (KABs), Ukrainian outlet NV reported. Ukraine’s Air Force had warned of guided bombs heading for Dnipro at around 05:10. Lukashuk added that air defences also shot down 21 Russian drones over the region during the night.

Guided-bomb strikes on a large regional centre far from the front line are especially dangerous: these munitions carry a heavy warhead, and the time between a warning and impact is only minutes.

What a KAB is

Guided aerial bombs are conventional high-explosive bombs fitted with a gliding and correction kit. Russian aircraft release them without entering the range of most Ukrainian air defences, and the bomb glides tens of kilometres to its target. Intercepting such a bomb in flight is extremely difficult, so the main defence is destroying the carrier aircraft and the airfields they fly from. That is why every Air Force warning about guided bombs requires an immediate reaction.

The previous day

The attack on Dnipro capped a difficult period for the region. Throughout 18 October the Russian army struck four districts of Dnipropetrovsk region more than 20 times, Hanzha reported.

• In Dnipro infrastructure was damaged; in the Hrushivka community a pharmacy and a private home were hit.
• In Synelnykove district the Mykolaivka and Raivka communities were attacked, damaging an enterprise, farm machinery, infrastructure and a farm.
• In the Nikopol area the district centre and the Marhanets, Chervonohryhorivka and Pokrovske communities came under fire. A cultural facility and a car were damaged; a woman was injured and will be treated as an outpatient.

Earlier still, from the evening of 17 October to the morning of 18 October, Russian forces attacked the region more than 10 times, injuring three people.

Part of a massive night

The strike on Dnipro came on the same night that Russia launched a combined attack on Ukraine with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. In Kyiv a medical facility, a high-rise residential building and metro infrastructure were damaged.

What comes next

Rescuers are clearing the damaged houses and checking whether anyone is trapped under the rubble. Local authorities will publish final figures on casualties and damage once the work is finished. UA.briefly is following updates from the regional military administration and the State Emergency Service.

Read also

Guided bombs have caused mass civilian casualties before: on 10 October a guided-bomb strike on Zaporizhzhia killed 20 people — see our report Guided-bomb strike on Zaporizhzhia. On the overnight attack on the capital, see Ballistic strike on Kyiv.

Staying safer

• react to guided-bomb warnings immediately — there is very little time after the alert;
• if no shelter is nearby, follow the “two walls” rule and stay away from windows;
• follow the regional administration and the Air Force in their official channels.