Dead boy pulled from rubble of latest Russian hit on Ukraine, country plunged into dark and cold again
- Toddler was found after a Russian missile tore through a block of flats in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih; one of 98 fired in latest attack
- On Saturday, Ukraine’s utility crews scrambled to patch up damaged power and water systems as cities pitched into darkness in sub-zero temperatures
Emergency crews pulled the body of a toddler from the rubble in a predawn search for survivors on Saturday of a Russian missile strike that tore through a block of flats in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih.
The missile was one of what Ukrainian authorities said were 16 that got through air defences among the 76 missiles fired on Friday in the latest Russian attack targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, part of Moscow’s strategy to leave Ukrainian civilians and soldiers in the dark and cold this winter.
Governor Valentyn Reznichenko 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.
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 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 updated the number of missiles fired in the latest attack to 98. It did not say how many in total had been stopped by the air defences.