Emergency personnel said early Sunday they could hear people trapped under piles of rubble screaming for help, but in freezing temperatures, rescuers faced a race against time to pull them out of the rubble.
Observing a moment of silence in a house destroyed by shelling, rescuers heard a woman and managed to pull her out of the rubble, Denys Monastyrskyi, Ukraine’s internal affairs minister, said in a Telegram post.
Officials warned that the strikes, the biggest in Russia in two weeks, would cut power supplies in the capital and large parts of the country this week. In Kharkiv, underground metro systems suspended operations amid the attacks and regional officials urged residents to seek shelter.
The shelling continued on Sunday, when the Ukrainian military command said Russia had launched three airstrikes, 57 missile strikes and 69 attacks with heavy weapons rocket salvo systems on Sunday. Ukrainian forces shot down 26.
Moscow did not comment on the attacks on Saturday or Sunday.
Elsewhere, there were conflicting reports about the fate of the fiercely contested salt mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces claimed to have captured the city on Friday with the help of the Wagner Group, a private military force.
It would mark a rare victory for the Kremlin as it approaches a year since it invaded Ukraine in late February, with little success on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Hanna Malyar denied reports that Soledar had fallen on Saturday, saying «fierce battles» for the city continue.