(Kyiv) Vladimir Putin promised Monday to “intensify” Russian strikes in Ukraine in retaliation for the unprecedented scale bombing by the Ukrainian army on the Russian city of Belgorod on Saturday.
“We will intensify the strikes, no crime against civilians will go unpunished, that is a certainty,” said Mr. Putin during a visit to a military hospital, affirming that these strikes will be carried out “on military installations” .
This statement comes following several days of escalation of hostilities between Russians and Ukrainians after the attack which left 25 dead on Saturday in Belgorod, Russia, following a missile attack against Ukraine on Friday, which had caused a forty dead.
FREELANCER PHOTO, ARCHIVES VIA REUTERS
Cars burned after what Russian authorities say was a Ukrainian military attack in Belgorod, Russia, December 30, 2023.
“We are striking with precision weapons the places of decision-making, the places where soldiers and mercenaries gather, other centers of this type, military installations above all,” continued Mr. Putin.
Describing the bombing of Belgorod as a “terrorist act”, which left 25 dead and more than a hundred injured on Saturday, he accused the Ukrainian forces of having struck in “the very center of the city, where people were take a walk, before New Year’s Eve.
Mr. Putin nevertheless considered that “Ukraine is not an enemy” in itself and accused the West of using the authorities in Kyiv to “rule [r] their own problems” with Russia.
Donetsk hit
The Russian president also assured that Moscow’s forces now have, according to him, the “strategic initiative” on the front in Ukraine, where they have been nibbling ground since the failure of the Ukrainian summer counter-offensive.
Vladimir Putin also wished “a happy new year” on Monday to several representatives of different formations of the Russian army gathered around him near Moscow, according to images broadcast by Russian television.
For his part, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced that a four-year-old girl, who was in “very serious” condition, died from her injuries, bringing the death toll from the bombing of Belgorod to 25 dead.
According to him, 109 people were injured, of whom 70 are still in hospital.
In addition to the deadly strikes of recent days, a Ukrainian attack on Donetsk over the New Year also left four dead and 13 injured in this Moscow-controlled city in eastern Ukraine, a Moscow-installed official announced. .
According to Denis Pushilin, Ukrainian forces targeted the center of this pro-Russian stronghold using cluster munitions.
Record drone attack
“The enemy aimed to do as much harm as possible to the civilian population,” Mr. Pushilin lambasted on Telegram, affirming that these strikes had “no sense on a military level”.
According to the rescue services cited by the Russian news agency TASS, a journalist was among those killed and another among the injured.
Donetsk, a large city in eastern Ukraine, came under the control of pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow in 2014 and has since been regularly bombarded by the Ukrainian army.
The Ukrainian strikes also damaged a school, apartment buildings, a store, a business center and other buildings, the Russian Investigative Committee said on Telegram.
Ukraine, for its part, claimed to have faced a “record” attack by 90 Russian drones on New Year’s Eve that targeted several cities, including Odessa (south) and Lviv (west), leaving at least one dead. .
PHOTO YURIY DYACHYSHYN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Municipal workers clean up debris outside the Lviv National University of Nature Management, after a drone attack in Doubliany.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry announced on Monday the death of two people, another injured, in a drone attack on an apartment building in the Sumy region (north-east).
In total, the Russian army launched ten “Shahed” explosive drones early Monday afternoon, nine of which were intercepted by Kyiv’s anti-aircraft defenses, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.