Russia kilos Kharkiv with missiles and drones, Ukraine says

Russia pounded the Ukrainian metropolis of Kharkiv with missiles and drones within the hours main into New Yr’s Eve, Ukrainian officers mentioned, hours after Moscow accused Kyiv of finishing up a lethal air assault simply throughout the border on close by Belgorod.

Within the first wave of Russia’s assaults, not less than six missiles hit Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov mentioned on Sunday, injuring not less than 28 individuals and hitting residential buildings, lodges and medical amenities.

Earlier, Ukrainian officers mentioned that two boys aged 14 and 16 and a safety adviser for a staff of German journalists had been amongst these injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis.

Nearer to midnight, as a part of a wider bombardment of Ukraine that additionally focused Kyiv, a number of waves of Russian drones hit residential buildings in Kharkiv’s heart, inflicting fires, the town’s mayor mentioned.

“On the eve of the New Year, the Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared — we are unbreakable and invincible!” Mayor Ihor Terekhov mentioned.

Photographs from Kharkiv confirmed badly broken buildings, together with a lodge with many home windows blown out.

Ukraine’s air power mentioned the army had shot down 21 out of 49 drones launched in a single day by Russia. Most had been aimed on the entrance line and elements of the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia areas, it mentioned.

In a separate assault, three individuals had been killed when Russian forces shelled a village within the Kharkiv area close to the entrance line, Syniehubov mentioned.

The assaults got here inside hours after what Moscow known as an “indiscriminate” Ukrainian air assault on the town of Belgorod, close to Kharkiv and simply north of Ukraine’s border, that killed not less than 22 individuals.

Russian newspaper Kommersant cited a supply near the Russian Investigative Committee as saying that Ukraine launched its assault on Belgorod from a a number of rocket launcher within the Kharkiv area.

Either side have elevated assaults within the final week of 2023, with Russia killing at least 31 civilians in its greatest air assault of the 22-month conflict on Ukraine on Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden, requested if he’ll converse to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after Russia’s newest assaults in Ukraine, mentioned: “I speak to him regularly.”