Dead boy pulled from rubble of latest Russian coup in Ukraine

Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Emergency crews pulled the body of a toddler from the rubble Saturday in a predawn search for survivors of a Russian missile attack that destroyed an apartment building in the town of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. the center of Ukraine.

The missile was one of 16 that Ukrainian authorities said evaded air defenses among 76 missiles fired on Friday in the latest Russian attack on Ukraine’s 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 recovered the body of a one-and-a-half-year-old boy from under the rubble of a house destroyed by a Russian rocket. In total, four people were killed in the attack and 13 were injured, four of them children, authorities said.

Reznichenko said attacks by Russian forces continued overnight, damaging power lines and houses in the cities and towns of Nikopol, Marhanets and Chervonohryhorivka, which lie across the Dnieper River from the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. for Russia.

On Saturday morning, Ukraine’s military leadership said Russian forces had fired more than 20 more missiles since the previous day’s shelling. He did not say how many of them might have been stopped by air defenses.

Friday’s attack, which hit many parts of central, eastern and southern Ukraine, was one of the biggest attacks on the capital Kyiv since Russia started the war by attacking Ukraine on February 24. Kyiv was attacked with about 40 missiles on Friday. , authorities said, almost all intercepted by air defenses.

In Kherson, where Ukraine regained control last month in a significant setback for Russia, a 36-year-old man was killed and a 70-year-old woman wounded in a Russian attack on Saturday, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said.

Once again, Ukrainian utility crews have had to scramble to repair damaged power and water systems as Russia targets vital services for civilians as winter hardships begin.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on Saturday that two-thirds of households in the country’s capital had been reconnected to electricity and all had regained access to water. The subway system also restarted service, after serving as a shelter the day before.

Half of Kyiv province, which surrounds but does not include the Ukrainian capital, was still without power a day after Friday’s attack, regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said, adding that rain and snow, which were freezing power lines power lines, complicating efforts to restore power. .

The head of Kharkiv province in northeastern Ukraine, Oleh Syniehubov, said on Saturday that power had been restored to the entire region, including the city of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest metropolis. Power had been knocked out Friday in attacks involving 10 S-300 missiles.

In Kryvyi Rih, 596 miners were trapped underground by missile strikes, but all were eventually rescued, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said late Friday.

On Saturday in Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized a new European Union sanctions package approved a day earlier. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the ninth batch of EU sanctions in response to the war “illegitimate unilateral restrictive measures” and criticized the ban on broadcasts by four major Russian TV channels as “authoritarian”.

By allowing EU member states to “provide certain exemptions” for Russian food and fertilizer exporters, Zakharova said the EU was acknowledging that its “restrictive measures have been undermining global food security.” The targets of the latest round of sanctions include divisions of the Russian army and all of Russia’s parliamentary parties. Also included in the package are a ban on exporting aircraft engines to Russia and sanctions against the energy and mining sectors.

The Kremlin confirmed on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin met a day earlier with commanders of the armed forces, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. He also spoke with commanders from different branches.

Meanwhile, the installation of a protective dome over the spent fuel storage area at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has begun.An official with the Moscow-based authorities of Zaporizhzhia province in southeastern Ukraine said on Saturday. Vladimir Rogov said the cupola would protect against shell fragments and drone-borne IEDs. The Russian-controlled plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, has been bombed repeatedly; 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 accidents. The UN nuclear watchdog has already sent a permanent mission to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

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