A toddler, elderly woman and family were among at least five people found dead Saturday after a Russian missile strike that tore through an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. 

The missile was one of 16 that got through Ukrainian air defenses 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.

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, said in a tweet that a total of 76 missiles were launched by Russia, but 60 of them were shot down. 

Zaluzhnyi added that 72 of the missiles were cruise missiles and four were guided air-to-surface missiles. 

Gov. 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, five people were killed in the strike, and 13 injured, four of them children, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The victims included “a 64-year-old woman and a young family with a small son,” Reznichenko wrote.

Reznichenko said the shelling 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.

A nursing home in the city of Kherson was also targeted by Russian missiles and one person was killed in the attack, the Kherson Governor said, according to the Kyiv Independent. 

The deceased was reportedly a 36-year-old man whose car was struck by one of the Russian shells while he was inside the vehicle. 

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 defenses.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on the war there has been a recent increase in Russian long-range missile strikes, which likely include Iranian-provided drones.  

The update added that Russia’s missiles had previously been fired primarily from Crimea, but the location has since changed to Russia’s Krasnodar region due, in part, to the Kremlin’s concerns about Crimea’s vulnerability.

The onslaught Friday, which pummeled many parts of central, eastern and southern Ukraine, also involved one of the biggest attacks yet on the capital, Kyiv, in the war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Kyiv came 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 because of missile strikes were all rescued, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul reported late Friday.

With Post wires