Putin spokesman denies blame for deadly apartment bombings in Ukraine

The Kremlin has rejected blame for dozens of civilian deaths after missiles attacks destroyed an apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

"Russia's armed forces are not attacking residential buildings or objects of civilian infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to the Russian state news agency.

The attack on Dnipro, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, was the largest of several Russian attacks over the weekend. At least 40 people were killed, including at least three children, Ukrainian authorities said as of noon on Monday.

Dozens more people remain missing in the rubble in sub-freezing weather.

Despite Moscow's claims that it has only attacking military targets, Russian shells have repeatedly killed many civilians throughout the Russian invasion which was first launched in February of last year.

Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, placed blame for the "tragedy" over the weekend on Ukraine's air defences and contended that comments from Ukrainian officials themselves supported that claim.

Peskov was apparently alluding to remarks by Oleksii Arestovych, an advisor in the Ukrainian presidential office, who said in a live online broadcast shortly after the attacks on Saturday that the missile "was shot down and fell on the entrance to the building."

Arestovych, however, later said he was only speculating about a potential version of events that had not yet been investigated.

The Ukrainian Air Force has stated that it was in no position to intercept missiles of the type that struck the apartment block.

Peskov on Monday also criticized Britain's announcement that it would provide Ukraine with 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks for its war effort.

"We take it very negatively," Peskov said of the British decision.