blamed ukraine for that blast, calling it a terror attack. ukraine s president has also accused moscow of terrorism after a string of russian strikes in zaporizhzhia. hours ago a new attack reportedly destroyed an apartment block, leading to several casualties. before that attack, ukraine s president said the strikes this week killed 43 civilians including 14 at this building. cnn s fred pleitgen is live in kyiv with the latest. reporter: just now, ten seconds ago, there were two very big explosions we re hearing right now. i can hear them very clearly from where we are right now. it s unclear whether or not that is incoming russian rockets or any other attack, whether or not that might be outgoing air defense rockets, unclear from our position. certainly it sort of americans with what we ve been seeing the entire morning which appears to be, to us, the ukrainian capital under full-on, massive rocket attack by there s another explosion right now. it seems as though there
this as one former wagner group commander flees to norway, and his lawyer is outfront tonight to tell his story for the first time. plus, just in to outfront, new details about the investigation into biden s classified documents. we now know more about who federal investigators have been speaking with about the case. and ron desantis launching a new charm offensive. he s trying to shed the notion that he s dry and reserved, those are the quotes. why now? let s go outfront. and good evening. i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, convicts on the front line. new audio into outfront of the chief of the brutal private russian army fighting on the front lines in ukraine, the wagner group. the chief yevgeny prigozhin s influence with putin has been surging. this is what prigozhin is now telling convicted criminals who have finished their tours of duty with him about staying out of prison. listen for yourself. translator: don t drink a lot, don t use drugs, and don t
wagner acknowledges using convicts recruited directly from russian prisons to fight. leader yevgeny prigozhin recently praising a group that survived. i told you i needed your criminal talents in order to defeat the enemy in ukraine. now those criminal talents are no longer needed. ukraine says the wagner assault and the missile strike show they need more advanced weapons from the u.s. and its allies to keep momentum on the battlefield and protect citizens at home. you know, erin, the events here also have big psychological effect on the people here as well. i was speaking to the mayor of dnipro. he said this used to be a town that was quite sympathetic to the russians. but that is now turning into downright hatred with massive strikes like the ones that people had to witness there in that complex. he also said this is something the ukrainians have been saying for a while they really need more of those air defense capabilities, especially the longer-range ones.
there, generally in the city of dnipro, there is a lot of grief and anger at the russians. here s what we re learning. sirens mark the end of a search and rescue marathon. for three days, responders worked day and night trying to save lives. now authorities say there is no more hope of finding survivors. there s an eerie quiet here now. and you can really see how people were just ripped out of their lives as the building crumbled around them. you can also see the full scale of the destruction. and the ukrainians say they cleared around 8,500 tons of debris from this area in about 72 hours. and, still, more bodies were found, including children. while others remain missing. this man searching for his grandson venting his anger at russia. translator: there is no mercy for them. i will curse them until the last days of my life. may they die.
strike will come. you ll see it, there it is. the building up in flames. graphic scenes like this have been playing out for days. and meanwhile to the west dnipro, that strike on an apartment building, president zelenskyy has made clear is a war crime, the death toll there rising to 45. and there are still 19 people missing in what was one of the deadliest strikes since the war began. fred pleitgen begins our coverage in dnipro. a horrible thing to have to see for yourself, as you have. what are you seeing there tonight? reporter: it certainly is a horrible thing. and one of the things the ukrainians said today is that the search and rescue part of that operation is now over. in other words, right now it s all about to recover. we saw those rescue crews earlier today basically stopping their work. and the numbers are just staggering. you mentioned 45 people killed. 15 of those actually have not yet been identified. among the killed, however, six children, five children also turned in