Ukrainian emergency crews have pulled the body of a toddler from the rubble in a pre-dawn search for survivors, following a Russian missile strike which tore through an apartment building in the central city of Kryvyi Rih.
Key points:
- Air defences intercept the majority of the Russian missiles directed at four major cities
- A number of missiles which eluded interception strike residential buildings
- Authorities say children are among the dead and wounded in the attack
It was one of what Ukrainian authorities said were 16 missiles that eluded air defences.
They were among the 76 missiles fired on Friday in the latest Russian attack targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure as part of Moscow’s strategy to leave Ukrainian civilians and soldiers in the dark and cold this winter.
Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Kryvyi Rih is located, 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, four people were killed in the strike, and 13 injured — four of them children — authorities said.
Mr Reznichenko said the pounding from Russian forces continued overnight, damaging power lines and houses in the cities and towns of Nikopol, Marhanets and Chervonohryhorivka, which are across the Dnieper River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
By Saturday morning, Ukraine’s military leadership said Russian forces had fired more than a score of other missiles since the barrage a day earlier. It did not say how many of those might have been stopped by the air defences.
On Saturday, a 36-year-old man was killed inside his car after Russian forces shelled Kherson, the regional governor said.
Yaroslav Yanushevych said on Telegram that Russian troops had struck a western district of Kherson with artillery and rocket fire which had also injured a 70-year-old woman.
In a separate message on Saturday, Mr Yanushevych said Russian troops had shelled a senior citizens’ home in a village outside Kherson.
The recent onslaught, which pummelled many parts of central, eastern, and southern Ukraine, constituted one of the biggest assaults on the capital, Kyiv, since Russia began the war.
Kyiv came under fire from about 40 missiles on Friday, authorities said, nearly all intercepted by air defences.
Scramble to repair power and water systems
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on 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.
The head of Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv province also said that electricity had been restored to the entire region, including Kharkiv city, the country’s second-largest metropolis.
The power had been knocked out on Friday in attacks involving 10 missiles.
In Kryvyi Rih, 596 miners were stuck underground because of missile strikes, but all were eventually rescued according to the local mayor.
Installation of a protective dome has begun at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, an official from the Moscow-installed authorities of Ukraine’s south-eastern Zaporizhzhia province said on Saturday.
Vladimir Rogov said the dome would protect against fragments of shells and improvised explosive devices carried by drones.
The Russian-held plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear power station, has been repeatedly shelled. Its six reactors have been shut down for months.
The International Atomic Energy Agency recently announced plans to station nuclear safety and security experts at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants to prevent any nuclear accident.
The UN nuclear watchdog has already deployed a permanent mission to the Zaporizhzhia plant.
AP/ Reuters