Emergency crews pulled the body of a toddler from the rubble in a pre-dawn seek for survivors on Saturday of a Russian missile strike that tore through an apartment constructing within the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih.
The missile was one among what Ukrainian authorities said were 16 that got through air defenses among the many 76 missiles fired Friday in the most recent Russian attack targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a part of Moscow’s strategy to depart Ukrainian civilians and soldiers at the hours of darkness and cold this winter.
Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko of the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Kryvyi Rih is situated, wrote on the Telegram social media app that “rescuers retrieved the body of a 1-1/2-year-old boy from under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Russian rocket.” In all, 4 people were killed within the strike, and 13 injured — 4 of them children — authorities said.
The victims were “a 64-year-old woman and a young family with a small son,” he wrote.
Reznichenko said the pounding from Russian forces continued overnight, damaging power lines and houses within the cities and towns of Nikopol, Marhanets and Chervonohryhorivka, that are across the Dnieper River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
By Saturday morning, Ukraine’s military leadership said Russian forces had updated the variety of missiles fired in the most recent attack to 98. It didn’t say what number of in total had been stopped by the air defenses.
The onslaught Friday, which pummeled many parts of central, eastern and southern Ukraine, involved one among the largest attacks yet on the capital, Kyiv, within the war sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Kyiv got here under fire from about 40 missiles on Friday, authorities said, though air defenses intercepted 37 of them.
Utility crews were scrambling to patch up damaged power and water systems.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported Saturday that two-thirds of homes had been reconnected to electricity and all had regained access to water. The subway system also resumed service, after serving as a shelter the day before.
In Kryvyi Rih, 596 miners stuck underground due to missile strikes were all rescued, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul reported late Friday.