New assessment after the Russian attacks. At least 30 people were killed and 160 injured in the massive Russian attacks on Thursday night, Ukrainian authorities said in a new report. The bombings hit essential infrastructure as well as industrial, military and civilian facilities, a report from the Ukrainian General Staff said.
“Major attack”. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, Russia fired almost 160 devices, including cruise missiles and Shahed explosive drones. The anti-aircraft defense managed to shoot down 88 missiles and 27 drones. “Russia has used almost every type of weapon in its arsenal,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “This is the most massive missile attack,” Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat assured, apart from the first days of the war.
The Ukrainians strike one after the other. The day after the Russian attacks, a Ukrainian attack on a residential building in Belgorod left one person dead, the region's governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. The Russian Defense Ministry also said that anti-aircraft systems over the region had destroyed 13 missiles. 32 Ukrainian drones were also neutralized in the Bryansk, Kursk and Orel areas north of the Ukrainian border and in Moscow.
condemnation by the UN. “Unfortunately, today’s horrific attacks are just the latest in a series of increasingly frequent attacks by the Russian Federation,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General Mohamed Khiari said Friday during an emergency Security Council meeting in New York. “The Secretary-General unequivocally and in the strongest terms condemns these horrific attacks carried out today against towns and villages in Ukraine,” he added, recalling that “the attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure constitute violations of international humanitarian law. “
Biden's call. US President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to “act without further delay” after the “massive bombings” in Ukraine, as negotiations to confirm a giant aid package for Kiev remain stalled. “Unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue to send urgently needed weapons and air defense systems to Ukraine to protect its people,” the leader warned in a press release.
Britain sends weapons. The United Kingdom announced on Friday that it would send around 200 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine to strengthen its defenses after the wave of Russian attacks on several cities in the country and called on its allies to “redouble their efforts” to provide military support to Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “testing Ukraine’s defenses and the West’s resolve… and today’s dispatch of an air defense package sends an irrefutable signal that the UK remains absolutely committed to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian barbarism British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.