(Moscow) Moscow promised on Saturday to respond to a strike attributed to the Ukrainian army which left 18 dead and 111 injured in Belgorod, the deadliest for civilians in Russia since the start of the conflict in February 2022.
This attack came the day after intense bombings in Ukraine, which authorities said killed 39 people.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said 18 people were killed in Belgorod, while 111 were injured.
PHOTO FROM TELEGRAM, RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF EMERGENCY SITUATIONS, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Images, published by the authorities, show cars on fire and buildings with broken windows.
Images posted online showed cars on fire, buildings with broken windows, and columns of black smoke rising on the horizon.
Ukraine regularly carries out strikes in Russia, particularly in the regions closest to its territory, but their toll is generally much lower.
Kyiv has not yet reacted to these accusations, but the Russian Defense Ministry has already assured that the attack will not go “unpunished”.
Russian forces managed to intercept two missiles and “most” of the rockets launched against the city, he added, which avoided “infinitely more serious” consequences.
However, several rockets and missile debris fell on Belgorod, he said.
“We have witnessed the worst consequences of the Ukrainian army’s bombings in two years,” regretted the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced a “cynical” act, “deliberately targeting places where civilians gather en masse”.
The UN Security Council will meet at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, at Russia’s request, to discuss the strike, according to the Russian mission to the United Nations and three council members.
At the same time, one person was killed and ten others injured in strikes in Donetsk, a large city in eastern Ukraine under Moscow’s control, declared the head of the Russian occupation of the region, Denis Pushilin.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are both due to deliver expected New Year’s speeches, after a year 2023 marked by a disappointing Kyiv counter-offensive and the near-total freeze of the front line.
“Massive” strike in Ukraine
For its part, Ukraine was still counting its dead on Saturday, after intense strikes the day before on several cities, including the capital Kyiv.
PHOTO YEVHEN TITOV, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Firefighters work to put out a fire after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
The wave of attacks, one of the most violent since the start of the war almost two years ago, targeted buildings, a maternity ward and even a shopping center, but also industrial and military infrastructures.
“At present, there are unfortunately 39 dead” across the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday, adding that around a hundred people had been injured.
In Kyiv alone, at least sixteen people were killed on Friday, according to the local administration.
Bodies continued to be pulled out of the rubble on Saturday in this city, where deadly strikes had become rarer in recent months.
Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat called it the “most massive missile attack” of the conflict, excluding the first days of the war.
New strikes targeted Ukrainian territory on Saturday, killing three people in the regions of Kherson, Zaporizhia and Cherniguiv, according to various local authorities.
Twenty people were injured in an attack in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the prosecutor general said, adding that a hotel, a kindergarten, apartment buildings and restaurants were hit.
Among the injured were two teenagers and a British man who was the security advisor to a team of German journalists, according to the same source.
“Protect lives”
Friday’s strikes provoked strong international condemnations, with the UN Secretary-General speaking out against “appalling attacks”.
This ends a difficult year for Ukraine, marked by the failure of its summer counter-offensive and a revival of Moscow’s forces.
This news is all the more worrying when viewed from Kyiv as Western aid begins to run out of steam, in Europe as in the United States, raising the risk of a drying up of the flow of munitions and funds.
On Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky launched a new appeal to his allies, assuring that arming Ukraine is “a way to protect lives”.
“Each manifestation of Russian terror proves that we cannot wait to provide assistance to those who are fighting,” he pleaded.