Russia has raised the death toll to 24, including three children, and more than a hundred injured in attacks on Belgorod, Bryansk and other cities in the country's southwest on Saturday. The Kremlin claimed the bombings hit civilian buildings and vowed to punish Ukraine. On the night of Saturday and this Sunday, Moscow's armed forces intensified their attacks on the neighboring country and fired a shower of rockets and drones on Kharkiv, 30 kilometers from the border with Russia, primarily targeting apartment blocks, a cafeteria and a daycare center center and a hotel where international aid workers and journalists normally stay. According to local authorities, there are three dead and thirty injured. The attacks also hit other regions such as Zaporizhia, Mikolaiv and Kherson in the south. Sirens wailed across the country warning of Russian airstrikes.
The Russian Defense Ministry assured this Sunday that the Kharkov bombings were a response to Saturday's attacks on Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol and Moscow. He had already promised that these bombings “would not go unpunished.” Russia assures that the attack last night and this morning on Kharkiv, which before the large-scale invasion was Ukraine's second largest city with a Russian-speaking majority, was aimed at “decision-making centers”, additionally reaffirming that it hit places where soldiers were and mercenaries. Ukraine denies this.
Saturday's attack on Russian territory, which primarily affected the city of Belgorod and for which Kiev did not officially claim responsibility – although several sources confirmed this to RBC Ukraine and the BBC – is the largest of its kind since the start of the invasion will be 676 days old this Sunday. The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has assured that 37 residential buildings, three houses and seven shops or cafes were affected by Saturday's bombings.
The attack on Russian soil comes after one of the Kremlin's largest drone and missile offensives over Ukraine on Friday. This Sunday, the total death toll rises to at least 50 people after several more lifeless bodies were recovered from a bombed warehouse in the capital Kiev.
Russia's war against Ukraine, which has become a battle of attrition on the front lines, has intensified in recent days and coincides with the New Year holidays – traditionally the biggest celebrations in both Russia and Ukraine. “On New Year’s Eve, the Russians want to intimidate our city,” Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terejov said on social media.
Ukraine begins 2024 in a complicated situation, with Western support faltering. Kiev hopes to receive 50 billion euros from the EU to keep the country afloat and cover current expenses, which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is close to Russia, is blocking for the time being. He also hopes that the US Congress will approve a $61 billion (55 billion euros) item frozen due to internal political infighting (particularly Republicans). The US State Department has warned that without Western support, the balance of power could potentially shift towards Russia.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.
Subscribe to
Against the backdrop of Moscow, President Vladimir Putin promised that Russia would resist everything in his traditional year-end speech, which has already been broadcast in the Eurasian country with 11 time zones. With a passing reference (without saying the word) to Ukraine – the country of which it has occupied part and which it supposedly wants to “liberate” and subjugate – and without directly mentioning the “special military operation” that, like that The Kremlin is calling for a large-scale war that will devastate the neighboring country. Putin has praised the army without mentioning the tens of thousands of deaths it threatens in the invasion. “To all those who find themselves in a fighting position, at the forefront of the fight for truth and justice: you are our heroes, our hearts are with you,” he said in a speech in the traditional tones of Russian propaganda.
The 71-year-old Kremlin chief is expected to begin a new term in March after amending the constitution three years ago, in a well-prepared vote unlike any other and planned as a patriotic celebration. “We have shown more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and that we will never turn back because there is no power that can divide us,” Putin said in his New Year's address.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Xor in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_