Saturday, during a predawn search for survivors following a Russian missile strike that destroyed an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, rescue workers recovered the body of a toddler.
According to Ukrainian authorities, 16 of the 76 missiles fired Friday in the latest Russian attack against Ukrainian energy infrastructure evaded air defenses. The attack was part of Moscow’s aim to leave Ukrainian residents and soldiers in the dark and cold this winter.
Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko of the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Kryvyi Rih is located, posted on the social media app Telegram that “rescuers recovered the body of a 1-and-a-half-year-old boy from under the wreckage of a house damaged by a Russian rocket.” Four individuals were murdered and thirteen were injured, including four children, according to the authorities.
Friday, December 16, 2022, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, firefighters from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service work to extinguish a fire in a building destroyed by a Russian attack. Russian military fired at least sixty missiles throughout Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukrainian officials, who also reported explosions in at least four Ukrainian cities, including Kiev. Evgeniy Maloletka / AP
Reznichenko reported that Russian forces continued their bombardment throughout the night, causing damage to power lines and homes in the cities and towns of Nikopol, Marhanets, and Chervonohryhryhorivka, which are located across the Dnieper River from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
On Saturday morning, Ukraine’s military leadership reported that Russian forces had fired more than a dozen additional missiles since Friday’s onslaught. It was not specified how many of these could have been intercepted by air defenses.
Friday’s assault, which devastated large portions of central, eastern, and southern Ukraine, was one of the largest attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, since Russia first attacked Ukraine on February 24. Authorities report that over 40 missiles were fired into Kiev on Friday, with virtually all of them being intercepted by air defenses.
Utility personnel rushed to repair broken water and electrical infrastructure.
On Saturday, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said that two-thirds of houses had recovered access to electricity and water. The subway system also resumed service the day following its use as a shelter.
Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province, announced on Saturday that power has been restored to the whole region, including the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. The power had been cut off on Friday by ten S-300 missile assaults.
All 596 miners who were trapped underground in Kryvyi Rih as a result of missile attacks were eventually freed, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul reported late Friday.
The installation of a protective dome has begun at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, an official from the Moscow-installed Zaporizhzhia provincial government stated on Saturday. Vladimir Rogov stated that the dome will provide protection against bits of shells and IEDs carried by drones. The largest nuclear power facility in Europe, which is under Russian control, has been repeatedly bombarded. Its six reactors have been inoperable for several months.
The International Atomic Energy Agency recently announced plans to put nuclear safety and security specialists at Ukraine’s nuclear power stations in order to prevent nuclear accidents. The U.N. nuclear inspector has already established a permanent post at the Zaporizhia nuclear power facility.
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