Russia said Ukraine carried out a terrorist attack on Saturday referring to the shelling of border city of Belgorod which killed at least 21 civilians and wounded dozens more.
The attack was supposedly in retaliation to the waves of rocket and drone strikes by Russian forces on Ukrainian cities one of the largest since the beginning of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war, if the initial days of incessant bombing are excluded.
Russia accused Ukraine of using cluster munitions on innocent civilians and warned that these attacks would “not go unpunished”.
Russia also demanded an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council as envoy Vasily Nebenzya claimed Kyiv targeted a sports center, an ice rink and a university.”In order to increase the number of casualties of the terrorist attack they used cluster munitions. “(It was a) deliberate, indiscriminate attack against a civilian target,” he said, according to a report by news agency AFP.
It remains to be seen if either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who are due to give New Year’s Eve speeches Sunday mention the attack or not. The conflict between the two countries approaches its second anniversary in February.
The attack on the border city of Belgorod came a day after Ukraine said a barrage of Russian missile strikes on several cities killed at least 40 people, wounding dozens more. Ukrainian officials further added that Russia launched fresh strikes on Saturday targeting the north-eastern city of Kharkiv causing more casualties.
Belgorod lies about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Ukraine and has been repeatedly struck by what Moscow says is indiscriminate shelling by Kyiv’s forces.
Pictures shared by news agency Reuters showed a street street strewn with debris and smoke billowing from burnt-out cars in the city’s centre.
It was one of the deadliest strikes on Russian soil since the beginning of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war in February 2022.
January 1, day of mourning
Russia authorities said the death toll included at least three children, with 17 children among the 110 wounded.
Russia’s foreign ministry, which has repeatedly denounced Western arms deliveries to Ukraine, accused the United States and Britain of “inciting the Kyiv regime to commit terrorist actions”.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment.
In Ukraine, rescuers continued to search through rubble Saturday, a day after Russian strikes killed at least 40 people, one of the fiercest attacks since the early days of the conflict.
Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping arcades and blocks of flats were among the buildings hit in Friday’s barrage, which triggered international condemnation.
“Work is still underway to eliminate the consequences of yesterday’s Russian attack,” Zelensky said.
Three more people were killed by Russian strikes across Ukraine on Saturday, local officials said.
And the prosecutor’s office said Russian rocket attacks on Kharkiv Saturday evening had wounded 26 people after hitting a range of buildings, including a hotel, a kindergarten, shops and restaurants.
The casualties included a British national, initially identified as a journalist, who was in fact a security adviser to a German media team, the statement added.
January 1 will be declared a day of mourning in the capital Kyiv, where at least 17 people were killed, city officials said.
Russia’s army said it had “carried out 50 group strikes and one massive strike” on military facilities in Ukraine over the past week, adding that “all targets were hit”.
The United Nations condemned the attacks and said they must stop “immediately”.
Missile ‘entered’ Polish airspace
Poland reported that a Russian missile briefly passed through its airspace during Friday’s attacks.
After speaking to Polish President Andrzej Duda, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance “stands in solidarity” with Poland, adding: “NATO remains vigilant.”
In the face of sustained Russian assaults, Ukraine is urging Western allies to maintain military support.
“Next year will be a time of many decisions — global decisions. And Ukraine needs to be able to influence them to be able to achieve its goals,” Zelensky said in his evening address Saturday.
“We will fight for our influence, for justice for Ukraine, and I am grateful to all the leaders who help, who have been with us since February 24th and will be with us in 2024.”
Britain announced it would send hundreds more air-defence missiles to Kyiv, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared: “We must continue to stand with Ukraine — for as long as it takes.”
Comments
0 comment