KYIV/MOSCOW: The death toll from a Russian missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro rose to 40 on Monday, making it the deadliest civilian incident of Moscow’s three-month campaign of attacking cities far from the frontlines.

Kyiv says the mass civilian deaths, which it describes as terrorism, demonstrate why it needs more weapons to defeat Russian forces 11 months after they invaded.

The Kremlin said that Russian forces did not target residential buildings in its missile strike against Ukraine, two days after a Russian missile hit an apartment complex in Dnipro. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “situation” in Dnipro was the result of Ukrainian counter-missiles and air defense.

Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht resigned on Monday as her government came under mounting pressure to let allies send Ukraine heavy tanks, at the start of what is expected to be a pivotal week for Western plans to arm Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials acknowledged little hope of finding anyone else alive in the rubble of Saturday’s attack in Dnipro, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said the rescue efforts in the city would go on “as long as there is even the slightest chance to save lives.”

Zelensky said: “Dozens of people were rescued from the rubble, including six children. We are fighting for every person.”

Kyiv said the apartment building in Dnipro was hit by a Russian ship-to-ship missile, of a type that Ukraine does not have the capability to shoot down. At least 40 people were killed in the attack with 30 still unaccounted for, city official Gennadiy Korban said, and 75 people were injured including 14 children.

Western countries had stopped short of sending heavy armor to Ukraine, a policy that ended at the weekend when Britain pledged a first squadron of 14 Challenger tanks. The far more widely used German-made Leopards are widely seen as the most likely workhorses of a future Ukrainian armored force, but they require re-export permits that Berlin has not granted.

Germany’s allies have been increasingly direct in their demands that it provide Leopards, or allow them to do so.

“I call for decisive actions by the German government,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday during a visit to Berlin.

“The battle for freedom and our future is raging as we speak. Tanks must not be left in storehouses, but placed in their hands.”

Finland’s Defense Minister Mikko Savola said: “It depends very much on Germany’s lead how we act with these Leopard tanks. These require a German export permit and in addition to that, the German defense industry has a very strong role in this, in how substitute equipment can be obtained.”