KYIV, Ukraine – Russia launched a new drone strike on Ukraine on Saturday night, after promising that an attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod earlier in the day “will not go unpunished.”
The Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday that it had shot down 21 of 49 drones launched by the Russian military overnight.
Twenty-eight people were injured in the attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Sunday.
A central hotel, apartment buildings, kindergartens, shops and administrative buildings were damaged, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had hit “decision-making centers and military facilities” in Kharkiv, reporting that its attack on the Kharkiv Palace Hotel had “destroyed representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Armed Forces of Ukraine” involved in a “terrorist attack” in Belgorod.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that a British journalist was among the injured, while German public broadcaster ZDF said Sunday that one of its television crews had been at the hotel.
A Ukrainian translator was hit by shrapnel and seriously injured, with one of the team’s security guards also injured, ZDF said in a statement.
Ukrainian rescuers work at the scene of a Russian drone attack on an office building in Kharkiv on Dec. 31, 2023. YAKIV LIASHENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Injured residents are evacuated after an apartment building was shelled. Photo by Serhiy Prokopenko for Gwara Media/Global Image Ukraine via Getty Images
“This is another Russian attack on the free press,” ZDF editor-in-chief Bettina Schausten said.
In the Kyiv region surrounding the capital, Russian drone strikes caused fires at critical infrastructure facilities, local officials said. They did not identify the facility further.
An attack in the central Russian border town of Belgorod Saturday killed 24 people, including three children.
Ukrainian firefighters respond to a Russian missile attack on a bank. Photo by Viacheslav Mavrychev/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Image Ukraine via Getty Images
Another 108 people were injured in the attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday, making it one of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 22 months ago.
Russian authorities accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, which came a day after an 18-hour Russian aerial bombardment across Ukraine killed at least 41 civilians.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it identified the munitions used in the attack as Czech-made Vampire rockets and Olkha missiles fitted with cluster warheads.
Damage to the side of the Kharkiv Palace Hotel after it was hit by Russian bombing. Pavlo Pakhomenko/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
It did not provide additional information, and The Associated Press could not verify the claim.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” said the ministry in a statement on social media.
In an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council demanded by Russia on Saturday night, envoy Vasily Nebenzya accused Kyiv of a “terrorist attack.”
Workers clear debris from residential buildings affected in the attack. Photo by Eugene Hertnier/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
In comments carried by Russian state media, Nebenzya claimed Ukraine had launched “deliberate acts of violence against civilians.”
Ukrainians are preparing for further attacks. Last year’s New Year’s Eve attack by Russia killed at least three civilians.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
