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Emergency crews pulled the body of a toddler from the rubble in a pre-dawn search Saturday for survivors of a Russian missile strike that tore through an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. The missile was one of what Ukrainian authorities said were 16 that eluded air defenses among the 76 missiles fired 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. 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, four people were killed in the strike, and 13 injured — four of them children — authorities said. 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 fired more than a score of further missiles since the barrage a day earlier. It did not say how many of those might have been stopped by the air defenses. Friday's onslaught, which pummeled many parts of central, eastern and southern Ukraine, constituted one of the biggest assaults on the capital, Kyiv, since Russia began the war by attacking Ukraine on Feb. 24. Kyiv came under fire from about 40 missiles on Friday, authorities said, nearly all intercepted by air defenses. Read more: More than 10,000 civilians dead in Ukraine port city: Mayor 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 was wounded in a Russian attack on Saturday, said regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych. Yet again, Ukrainian utility crews have had to scramble to patch up damaged power and water systems as Russia targets vital services for civilians as winter's hardships set in. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported Saturday that two-thirds of homes in the country's capital 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. Half of the Kyiv province, which surrounds but doesn't include the Ukrainian capital, still lacked electricity a day after Friday's attack, Regional Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said, adding that rain and snow, making power lines icy, was complicating efforts to restore power. The head of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province Oleh Syniehubov said Saturday that electricity had been restored to the entire region, including Kharkiv city, the country's second-largest metropolis. The power had been knocked out on Friday in attacks involving 10 S-300 missiles. In Kryvyi Rih, 596 miners were stuck underground because of missile strikes, but all were eventually rescued, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said late Friday. In Moscow on Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry slammed a new package of European Union sanctions approved a day earlier. Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova branded the EU’s ninth batch of sanctions in response to the war “illegitimate unilateral restrictive measures” and lashed out at a ban on broadcasts by four major Russian TV channels as “authoritarian.” In allowing EU member states to “provide certain exemptions” for Russian food and fertilizer exporters, Zakharova contended that the EU was recognizing that its “restrictive measures have been undermining world food security.” 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 the export of aviation engines to Russia and sanctions against the energy and mining sectors The Kremlin on Saturday confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin huddled a day earlier with armed forces commanders, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov. He also spoke with commanders from different branches. Read more: Ukraine fears 'city of death' as Russia withdraws troops from Kherson Meanwhile, installation of a protective dome has begun over the spent-fuel storage area at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, an official from the Moscow-installed authorities of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia province said on Saturday. Vladimir Rogov said the dome would protect against fragments of shells and improvised explosive devices carried by drones. The Russian-held plant, Europe’s biggest nuclear power station, has been repeatedly shelled; 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 accident. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has already deployed a permanent mission to the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Ten people, including five children died as nighttime fire ravaged an eight-story apartment building Friday in one of the city of Lyon’s poorest suburbs, French authorities said. The cause of the fatal blaze was being investigated. Fourteen people were injured in the fire in the small suburban town of Vaulx-en-Velin, four of them seriously, according to the prefecture for the Rhone region. Some 170 firefighters were mobilized after the fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. The fire has been extinguished. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw several firetrucks and a security perimeter set up around the area, and residents and traumatized neighbors assembling in a car park opposite the building. Read more: Wildfire in southwestern France: 8,000 people evacuated Vaulx-en-Velin, a town of 43,000 inhabitants, is among the most impoverished areas in the Rhone region. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called the deadly fire “a shock” said that he would travel in the coming hours to the town, which is 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Paris. Darmanin was traveling to Lyon on Friday to present the security plan for Sunday’s final between Argentina and France. Darmanin will be accompanied on his visit by Housing Minister Olivier Klein. It’s the deadliest fire in France since 2019, when an arson attack in a posh Paris district killed 10 people and injured 32 others. Read more: France halts Brazil trade deal over Amazon fires

Ukrainian authorities reported explosions in at least three cities Friday, saying Russia has launched a major missile attack on energy facilities and infrastructure. Local authorities on social media reported explosions in the capital, Kyiv, southern Kryvyi Rih and northeastern Kharkiv as air raid alarms sounded across the country, warning of a new barrage of the Russian strikes that have occurred intermittently since mid-October. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram social media app that the city is without electricity. Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported three strikes on the city’s critical infrastructure. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a top official in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, reported a strike on a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, warning on Telegram: “There may be people under the rubble.” Emergency services were on site, he said. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in at least four districts, urging residents to go to shelters. Read more: Russian missiles cross into Poland during strike on Ukraine, killing 2 “The attack on the capital continues,” he wrote on Telegram. Subway services in the capital were suspended, he said, as city residents flocked inside its tunnels deep underground to seek shelter. Ukrzaliznytsia, the national railway operator, said power was out in a number of stations in the eastern and central Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, due to damage to the energy infrastructure. But trains continued to run by switching from electric power to steam-engine power, which had been readied as a backup. Such strikes targeting energy infrastructure have been part of a new Russian strategy to try to freeze Ukrainians into submission after key battlefield losses by Russian forces in recent months. But some analysts and Ukrainian leaders say such an onslaught has only strengthened the resolve of Ukrainians to face up to Russia’s invasion that began on Feb. 24. Read more: Deadly missile strike adds to Ukraine war fears in Poland The previous such round of massive Russian air strikes across the country took place on Dec. 5. Ukrainian authorities have reported some successes in intercepting and downing incoming missiles, rockets and armed drones.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned Thursday that if the United States confirms reports that it plans to deliver sophisticated air defense missiles to Ukraine, it would be “another provocative move by the U.S.” that could prompt a response from Moscow. Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a weekly briefing that the U.S. had “effectively become a party” to the war in Ukraine, following reports that it will provide Kyiv with Patriot surface-to-air missiles, the most advanced the West has yet offered to help repel Russian aerial attacks. Growing amounts of U.S. military assistance, including the transfer of such sophisticated weapons, “would mean even broader involvement of military personnel in the hostilities and could entail possible consequences,” Zakharova added. She did not specify what the consequences might be. U.S. officials said Tuesday that Washington was poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, finally agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian missiles that have crippled much of the country’s vital infrastructure. An official announcement is expected soon. Operating and maintaining a Patriot battery requires as many as 90 troops, and for months the U.S. has been reluctant to provide the complex system because sending American forces into Ukraine to operate the systems is a nonstarter for the administration of President Joe Biden. Even without the presence of U.S. service members to train Ukrainians on use of the system, concerns remain that deployment of the missiles could provoke Russia or risk that a fired projectile could hit inside Russia and further escalate the conflict. Before reports emerged on the delivery of Patriot systems, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, which is chaired by President Vladimir Putin, warned that if Patriots enter Ukraine “along with NATO personnel, they will immediately become a legitimate target for our armed forces.” Read: Russian drone strikes damage 5 buildings in Ukraine capital Asked Wednesday whether the Kremlin backs that threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov answered yes, but added in a conference call with reporters that he would refrain from more detailed comment until the U.S. officially announces the Patriot delivery to Ukraine. Two defense officials said Russia’s warnings would not change the calculation about what weapons the U.S. would provide. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the issue. Ukraine has so far been cautious in reacting to the reports. Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, told reporters Thursday in Kyiv that the delivery of such weaponry remains “sensitive not only for Ukraine, but for our partners,” and that only President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov would make any official announcement on such an agreement. White House and Pentagon leaders have said consistently that providing Ukraine with additional air defenses is a priority, and Patriot missiles have been under consideration for some time. As the winter closed in and the Russian bombardment of civilian infrastructure escalated, official said, the idea became a higher priority. Ukraine’s electricity provider said Thursday that the country’s energy system had a “significant deficit of electricity,” and that emergency shutdowns had been applied in some areas as temperatures hover around or below freezing. The state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo warned in a statement on Facebook that damage caused to energy infrastructure by Russian attacks is being compounded by harsh weather, including snow, ice and strong winds. Maximum temperatures in the capital were forecast to barely climb above freezing heading into the weekend, with even colder weather expected early next week. The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was left completely without power following Russian shelling on Thursday, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, who wrote on Telegram. He added that two people were killed in the attacks. Heavy shelling of the city’s Korabelny district was still underway in the afternoon, and Russian shells hit 100 meters (yards) from the regional administration building, he said. Read: Ukraine president again presses West for advanced weapons Amid the infrastructure attacks and power outages across the country, seven civilians were killed and 19 wounded on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a report issued by the Ukrainian president’s office. The head of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province, Pavlo Kyrylenko, reported that Russian strikes the previous day had killed two civilians and wounded seven. Kremlin-backed authorities in the region, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in September, announced that Russia had taken control of 80% of the city of Marinka, seen as critical to Ukrainian hopes of retaking the Russian-held regional capital, Donetsk. The Moscow-installed mayor of Donetsk, Aleksei Kulemzin, said Thursday that the city center had been hit by “the most massive strike” since the area came under the control of Russian-backed separatists in 2014. Writing on Telegram, Kulemzin said 40 Ukrainian rockets struck Donetsk on Thursday morning, noting that multistory residential buildings were hit and that fires broke out at a hospital and university campus. Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces shelled Russia’s western Kursk province, according to regional Gov. Roman Starovoyt. Six shells reportedly struck a farm in the province’s Belovsky district, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy province. There were no casualties, Starovoyt wrote on Telegram. In other developments Thursday: — Russia continued to build up its military presence in Belarus, a senior Ukrainian military official said. According to Brig. Gen. Oleksiy Hromov, Russian units “are undergoing training and combat coordination” in Belarus, with the Kremlin using Belarusian officers and training grounds to improve the combat capability of existing units, as well as to train newly created units. Read: Russia grinds on in eastern Ukraine; Bakhmut ‘destroyed’ Speaking at a press briefing, Hromov said the probability of a Russian offensive from Belarus “remains low,” but he highlighted that the transfer of Russian weapons to Belarus is ongoing, including three hypersonic missile-carrying aircraft, a set of tanks and a long-range radar-detection aircraft. — Russia’s Foreign Ministry says the Vatican has apologized for a statement Pope Francis made in a recent interview in which he singled out two Russian ethnic minorities — the Chechens and the Buryats — as being “the most cruel” participants in the war in Ukraine. At a briefing on Thursday, Zakharova quoted from what she said was a message from the Vatican that “apologizes to the Russian side” for the pope’s comments. Zakharova praised the message, saying that it showed the Vatican’s “ability to conduct dialogue and listen to interlocutors.” A Vatican spokesman would say only that there had been diplomatic contacts on the matter.

U.K. inflation eased in November as gasoline and diesel prices rose more slowly than the previous month. The consumer price index rose 10.7% in the 12 months through November, down from a 41-year high of 11.1% in October, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. November’s inflation rate was less than the 10.9% expected by economists. Read more: Europe’s inflation likely hasn’t peaked, says central bank chief Lagarde The news comes after the U.S. on Tuesday reported a second consecutive drop in its inflation rate. U.S. consumer prices rose 7.1% in November, down from 7.7% in October. But British officials said it was too soon to say whether inflation had peaked in the U.K., which is being slammed by high electricity and natural gas prices as winter begins to take hold. “Some may be calling this a peak; it is, I think, too early,” Grant Fitnzer, chief economist for the ONS, told the BBC. “We’ve only seen one fall from a 40-year high, so let’s wait a few months.” Read more: Record inflation puts the squeeze on Eurozone economies The figures will be watched closely by the Bank of England, which is meeting ahead of an interest rate decision on Thursday. The bank raised its key rate to 3% last month, the eighth consecutive rate increase in the past year.

Russian drone strikes damaged five buildings in the capital, Kyiv, on Wednesday even as Ukrainian air defenses thwarted many more, authorities said. No casualties were reported. The attacks underline how Ukraine's biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks that have devastated infrastructure and other population centers, mostly in the country's east and south in recent weeks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a brief video statement, said the “terrorists” fired 13 Iranian-made drones, and all were intercepted. Such drones have been part of Russia’s firepower along with mortar, artillery and rocket strikes across Ukraine in recent weeks. Read more: Zelenskyy asks New Zealand to focus on war’s ecological toll The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, wrote on Telegram that the strikes came in two waves, and shrapnel from the intercepted drones damaged one administrative building, while four residential buildings sustained minor damage. The capital remained largely calm after the attack, which occurred around daybreak and before the start of the business day, and the destruction appeared limited compared to fallout from other Russian strikes that have taken lives and upended livelihoods across the country in recent weeks. As the workday began in Kyiv, authorities sounded the all-clear on an air raid alert system. The strike left a gaping hole in the roof of a three-story administrative building in the central Shevchenkyvskyi district, and the blast blew out windows in parked cars and in a neighboring building. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. In a sign of Ukrainians' reactivity and resilience to hundreds of such strikes in recent months, clean-up crews were on site quickly to shovel away the rubble and roll out plastic sheeting to cover blown-out windows to cope with freezing temperatures in the snow-covered capital. One man, unfazed, pushed his son on a swing set on a nearby playground as the crews did their work. Read more: Ukraine president again presses West for advanced weapons The attack underscored the continued vulnerability of the capital, which has largely been spared of damage in the latest phases of Russia's nearly 10-month onslaught in Ukraine. Ukraine in recent weeks has faced a barrage of Russian air strikes across the country, largely targeting infrastructure, as well as continued fighting along the front lines in the eastern and southern regions. During the latest round of Russian military volleys on Dec. 5, more than 60 of 70 strikes were intercepted by air defense systems, including nine out of 10 targeting the capital and its region, Ukrainian officials have said. U.S. officials said Tuesday the United States was poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, agreeing to an urgent request from Ukrainian leaders desperate for more robust weapons to shoot down incoming Russian missiles. Zelenskyy pressed Western leaders as recently as Monday to provide more advanced weapons to help his country in its war with Russia. The Patriot would be the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the West has provided to Ukraine to help repel Russian aerial attacks in the war between the countries that erupted with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. U.S. officials also said last week that Moscow has been looking to Iran to resupply the Russian military with drones and surface-to-surface missiles.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged New Zealand to take a leading role in focusing on the environmental destruction his country is suffering as a result of Russia’s invasion. Zelenskyy delivered his message via video link to lawmakers who packed the debating chamber at 8 a.m. Wednesday. He became just the second foreign leader to address New Zealand’s parliament, after Australia’s Julia Gillard did so in 2011. Zelenskyy said it was possible to rebuild a nation’s economy and infrastructure, even though it may take many years. “But you can’t rebuild destroyed nature, just as you can’t restore destroyed lives,” he said. Read: Ukraine president again presses West for advanced weapons Zelenskyy is pushing for a 10-point peace plan that, as well as environmental protection, including items such as nuclear safety and justice. He has been asking various countries to take a lead on different points. He said some of the environmental effects of the war included poisoned groundwater, ravaged forests, flooded coal mines and huge areas of Ukraine that remain contaminated from unexploded mines. Zelenskyy thanked New Zealand for their contributions to Ukraine’s war effort so far and offered a message of hope. “Various dictators and aggressors, they always fail to realize the strength of the free world’s governments,” he said. New Zealand announced it was providing another 3 million New Zealand dollars ($2 million) in humanitarian aid through the International Committee of the Red Cross, adding to the NZ$8 million it had already provided. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Zelenskyy her country’s support for Ukraine wasn’t determined by geography or diplomatic ties. Read: ‘I’ll kill you all’: Man kills 3 in Rome condo board meeting “Our judgment was a simple one,” she said. “We asked ourselves the question, ‘What if it was us?’” She said that in such a scenario, New Zealand would want nations in the international community to use their voices, “regardless of their political systems, their distance, or their size.” Lawmakers finished the address by singing a World War II-era song in the Indigenous Māori language.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed Western leaders again on Monday to provide more advanced weapons to help his country in its war with Russia, and he repeated his calls for Russian forces to withdraw from occupied areas of Ukraine, suggesting Christmas as a date to retreat. During a video conference, Zelenskky told host Germany and other leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers: “It would be right to begin the withdrawal of Russian troops from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine this Christmas. If Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, then a reliable cessation of hostilities will be ensured.” He added: “The answer from Moscow will show what they really want there: either a further confrontation with the world or finally an end to aggression.” The G-7 leaders supported Zelenskyy's appeal, saying in a statement after their meeting that “Russia can end this war immediately by ceasing its attacks against Ukraine and completely and unconditionally withdrawing its forces from the territory of Ukraine.” The Kremlin has rejected all previous appeals to reverse its land grabs in Ukraine. It didn’t immediately respond to this latest one. The two countries haven't engaged in any recent peace talks and there is no end in sight for the war, which is in its 10th month and has killed and wounded tens of thousands of people and left dozens of Ukrainian cities and towns in ruins . Read more: Russia grinds on in eastern Ukraine; Bakhmut ‘destroyed’ Russia has illegally annexed parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, though it doesn't fully control all of them. Zelenskyy has said his goal is to reclaim all occupied territory, while Russian President Vladimir Putin insists on solidifying his forces' control over the areas. In his address to the G-7, Zelenskyy echoed his prime minister's Sunday appeal for long-range missiles, modern tanks, artillery and missile batteries and other high-tech air defense systems to counter Russian attacks that have knocked out electricity and water supplies for millions of Ukrainians. He acknowledged that, “Unfortunately, Russia still has an advantage in artillery and missiles.” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told French broadcaster LCI that in addition to making Ukrainians suffer, Russia wants to swamp Europe with Ukrainian refugees by striking power stations and other infrastructure. Zelenskyy told the G-7 that protecting Ukraine's energy facilities from Russian missiles and Iranian drones “will be the protection of the whole of Europe, since with these strikes Russia is provoking a humanitarian and migration catastrophe not only for Ukraine, but also for the entire EU.” Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, said his nation already has seen an increased demand to shelter refugees. "The number of refugees in Poland has risen (recently) to some 3 million. That will probably also mean an increase in their numbers in Germany,” Duda said following talks with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin. Read more: Ukraine: Russia put rocket launchers at nuclear power plant  On Monday, Russian shelling again mostly focused on eastern and southern regions that Putin illegally annexed. To defend against further strikes, Shmyhal repeated Ukrainian calls for Patriot surface-to-air missiles — a highly sophisticated system. During the LCI interview, he also asked for more German and French air-defense systems, resupplies of artillery shells and modern battle tanks. Providing Patriot missiles to Ukraine would advance the kinds of defense systems the West is sending to help the country repel Russian aerial attacks, and would likely mark an escalation. A U.S. official told reporters the Pentagon has no current plans to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine, but that discussions continue. The key issue is that the complex, high-tech system requires significant maintenance and training, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations in Ukraine. Air defenses were also a topic of a phone call Zelenskyy held Sunday with U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden "highlighted how the U.S. is prioritizing efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense through our security assistance, including the Dec. 9 announcement of $275 million in additional ammunition and equipment that included systems to counter the Russian use of unmanned aerial vehicles," the White House said. The G-7 leaders said in their statement that they've set an “immediate focus on providing Ukraine with air defense systems and capabilities.” Even with their current systems, Ukrainian forces have already succeeded in intercepting missiles and drones, and a spokeswoman for the country's southern armed forces, Natalia Humeniuk, said Monday on Ukrainian TV that “the effectiveness of anti-aircraft defense is 85%-90%” against weaponized drones. U.S. officials agree with Ukraine's reported success in shooting down drones and missiles, attributing the high kill rate in part to intelligence that the U.S. and other allies are providing. Russian drones are still active. Their attacks near the Black Sea port of Odesa over the weekend destroyed several energy facilities and left all customers except hospitals, maternity homes, boiler plants and pumping stations without power. Slovakia said that in cooperation with Germany, it has opened a center to repair Ukrainian howitzers and air defense systems of Western origin. The center is located inside a military base in the town of Michalovce, some 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of the border with Ukraine, the EU member nation's Defense Ministry said. In Ukraine, the eastern Donbas region, made up of Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, again has become a focus of intense fighting, particularly around the city of Bakhmut. Ukrainian officials said Monday the country’s forces hit a hotel in the Luhansk region that served as a headquarters of the Wagner Group, a private Russian military contractor and mercenary group that has played a prominent role in eastern Ukraine. The region's Ukrainian governor, Serhiy Haidai, said in an unverified claim that hundreds of Russians were killed in the strike on Kadiivka on Sunday. Moscow-backed local officials in Luhansk confirmed that a Ukrainian strike destroyed a hotel building in Kadiivka but claimed it was unused. Ivan Fedorov, the Ukrainian mayor of the southeastern town of Melitopol, reported that Ukraine attacked a hotel that reportedly housed analysts from Russia’s top security agency, the FSB. Moscow did not comment on that claim, and none of the reports could be independently confirmed. Russian officials, meanwhile, accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up pillars of a bridge in a suburb of Melitopol on Monday night. Various reports said Russian forces had been using the bridge to transport supplies and that traffic across it has now stopped. Elsewhere, the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said two civilians were killed and 10 were wounded in Russia’s shelling of the town of Hirnyk in the Donetsk region. Yaroslav Yanushevych, the governor of the Kherson region, said a Russian strike on the southern city of the same name, which Ukraine reclaimed a month ago, killed two civilians and left five wounded Monday. He said the Russian shelling hit residential buildings and damaged power lines. And in Skadovsk, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of Kherson where the Russian-installed Kherson regional administration had been relocated, a senior government official was lightly injured Monday in an assassination attempt, the Russian Ria-Novosti news agency reported. The driver of a car carrying the official was killed in the attack, it said.

A man opened fire Sunday during a condominium board meeting in a coffee shop in northern Rome, killing three people and injuring others, authorities and witnesses said. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri called an emergency security meeting for Monday after what he called “the grave episode of violence that has struck our city.” In a tweet, he confirmed three people were killed in the shooting in the working class neighborhood of Fidene. “The shooting occured in an enclosed outdoor seating area of the bar, called “Il Posto Giusto,” or “The Right Place.” Read: 9 killed in Walmart shooting in Virginia La Repubblica daily quoted witness Luciana Ciorba, vice president of the condo board, as saying the man entered the bar shouting “I’ll kill you all,” and then opened fire. Participants managed to disarm him until Carabinieri police arrived. Speaking in a video interview, Ciorba said the man was known to board members and had been previously reported to authorities for making threats against local residents.

A hand grenade jerry-rigged into the detergent tray of a Kherson home’s washing machine. A street sign maliciously directing passers-by toward a deadly minefield. A police station that allegedly housed a torture chamber but remains so booby-trapped that demining crews can’t even start to hunt for evidence. Sunday marks exactly one month since Russia's troops withdrew from Kherson and its vicinity after an eight-month occupation, sparking jubilation across Ukraine. But life in the southern city is still very far from normal. The departing Russians left behind all sorts of ugly surprises, and their artillery continues to batter the city from new, dug-in positions across the Dnieper River. The regional administration said Saturday that shelling over the past month has killed 41 people, including a child, in Kherson, and 96 were hospitalised. Read more: Russia grinds on in eastern Ukraine; Bakhmut ‘destroyed’ Residents’ access to electricity still comes and goes, although water is largely connected, and indoor heating has only very recently been restored — and only to about 70-80% of the city — after the Russians last month blew up a giant central heating station that served much of the city. For authorities and citizens, sifting through the countless headaches and hazards left behind by the Russians, and bracing for new ones, is a daily chore. On Friday alone, according to the local affiliate of public broadcaster Suspilne, Russian forces shelled the region 68 times with mortars, artillery, tank and rocket fire. Meanwhile, in the last month, a total of 5,500 people have taken evacuation trains out, and work crews have cleared 190 kilometers (115 miles) of road, Suspilne reported. When aid trucks arrived a month ago, war-weary and desperate residents flocked to the central Svoboda (Freedom) Square for food and supplies. But after a Russian strike on the square as a line of people queued to enter a bank in late November, such large gatherings have become less common and aid is doled out from smaller, more discreet distribution points. Regional officials say some 80% of Kherson's pre-war population of about 320,000 fled after the Russians moved in, days after their invasion began on Feb. 24. With some 60,000-70,000 residents remaining, the city now has a feel of a ghost town. Those who remain mostly keep indoors because they're cautious about making forays into the streets. “Life is getting back to normal, but there is a lot of shelling," said Valentyna Kytaiska, 56, who lives in the nearby village of Chornobaivka. She lamented the nightly “Bam! Bam!” and the unsettling uncertainty of where the Russian ordnance may land. Normal is a relative term for a country at war. There’s no telling whether what Russia insists on calling a “special military operation” will end in days, weeks, months or even years. In the meantime, painstaking efforts go on to establish a better sense of normalcy, like clearing the mess and mines left behind by the Russians, in tough wintertime weather. "The difficulties are very simple, it’s the weather conditions," said one military demining squad member, who goes by the nom de guerre of Tekhnik. He said some of their equipment simply doesn't work in frost conditions “because the soil is frozen like concrete.” Read more: Ukraine: Russia put rocket launchers at nuclear power plant The deployment of additional teams could help ease the heavy workload, he said. “To give you an idea, during the month of our work, we found and removed several tons of mines," said Tekhnik, adding that they focused only on about 10 square kilometers (about 4 square miles). In Kherson's Beryslavskyi district, a main road was blocked off with a sign reading “Mines Ahead” and rerouting passersby to a smaller road. In fact, it was that side road which was mined, and cost the lives of some military deminers. A few weeks later, four police officers were also killed there, including the police chief from the northern city of Chernihiv, who had come down to help Kherson regain its footing. The general state of disrepair of weather-beaten roads helped the outgoing Russians disguise their deadly traps: Potholes, some covered with soil, provided a convenient place to lay mines. Sometimes, the Russians cut into the asphalt to make holes themselves. Demining squads go slowly house-to-house to ensure it's safe for owners or previous residents to return. Experts say a single home can take up to three days to be cleared. One crew turned up a hand grenade in one house, stuffed into a a washing machine — the pin placed in such a way that opening the detergent tray would set off an explosion. The city's main police station, where detainees were reportedly tortured, is packed with explosives. When demining squads tried to work their way in, part of the building exploded — so they've shelved the project for now. Longer term questions remain: Kherson sits in an agricultural region that produces crops as diverse as wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon — a regional symbol. The fields are so heavily mined that about 30% of arable land in the region is unlikely to be planted in the spring, Technik the deminer said. A cursory look reveals the tops of anti-tank mines poking up in the fields. Even so, after a night of shelling from Friday evening into Saturday, Kherson resident Oleksandr Chebotariov said life had been even worse under the Russians for himself, his wife and 3-year-old daughter. “It's easier to breathe now,” the 35-year-old radiologist said — only to add: “If the banging doesn’t stop before the New Year, I’m going on vacation.”