Brave rescuers sifting through rubble for survivors have confirmed that 12 people have died and 33 have been injured in a Russian missile strike on the Mykolaiv governor’s office.

Images obtained by Newsflash from the Ukrainian rescue services show firefighters dousing the building with water and removing injured and visibly shell-shocked people from the ruins.

A gaping hole can be seen in the building as rescuers sift through bloodstained rubble and destroyed offices in the hopes that they will find people alive.

One person, unclear if alive or dead and covered in a blanket, can be seen being put into an ambulance as the footage ends.

The incident, which saw a Russian missile tear a hole in the nine-storey building, took place at approximately 9am yesterday morning (Tuesday, 29th March).

The Russian attack mostly destroyed the regional governor’s office.

Governor Vitaliy Kim, 41, has been described as a regional version of Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 44, in that he exhibits the same resolve and ability to boost morale with his social media posts and videos, in which he is even often seen sporting a military-style T-shirt like his leader.

Kim was luckily not there at the time and thus survived the apparent attempt to kill him.

Newsflash initially obtained the second piece of footage without comment from Kim, who has been the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast since 2020, yesterday.

The images apparently show the missile zooming past the camera lens. The missile appears to strike the building just out of shot, with plumes of smoke rapidly rising until they obscure the camera lens.

In an update obtained by Newsflash from the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine this morning (Wednesday), the rescuers said they were still working to sift through the rubble in the hopes of pulling people out alive.

The SES said: “Search and rescue operations continue after an enemy missile hit a nine-storey building of the regional state administration and the destruction of the central section from the 9th to the 1st floor.

“Rescuers work in shifts, there are 8 units of equipment and 38 employees of the SES.

“As of 08:00 the work continues. The bodies of 12 victims were removed from the rubble, 33 people were injured (of which 18 people were rescued by SES units and transferred to ambulance crews).”