Russia launched its heaviest airstrike of the war today, raining missiles on Ukrainian cities including Kiev.
The overnight attacks came days after Ukraine attacked a Russian warship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia, a major setback for the Russian navy.
It is considered the most violent airstrike of the brutal and bloody war that Putin unleashed 22 months ago.
Russia fired about 110 missiles and drones against Ukrainian targets overnight, among the largest bombings of the year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today.
Most of the incoming missiles and drones were shot down, but at least seven civilians were killed and an unknown number of people were buried under rubble, Ukrainian officials said. Numerous injuries were reported.
Zelensky said Kremlin forces had used a variety of weapons, including ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
Russian missile strikes today left one person dead and eight injured in Kharkiv and seven others injured in Kiev, officials said.
A subway station building in the Ukrainian capital used as a shelter was damaged, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on the messaging app Telegram.
Video posted on social media showed a Russian missile attack on Kiev. A high-rise building was hit in Kyiv
Smoke rises into the sky over the city after a Russian missile and drone attack during the Russian attack on Ukraine on December 29, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine
A rocket explosion is seen during a Russian missile and drone attack during Russia's attack on Ukraine on December 29, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine
“Explosions in Kyiv. Air defense in action. Stay in shelters,” Klitschko said in a post on Telegram. Klitschko later said a warehouse had burned.
Video posted on social media appeared to show a massive explosion in a high-rise building in the capital.
Sergiy Popko, head of Kiev's military administration, said rubble fell in two parts of the city and there was also a fire in an apartment building.
Twenty-two Russian attacks were recorded in Kharkiv, damaging a hospital, residential buildings and an industrial facility, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in televised comments.
Drones and missiles hit at least five other Ukrainian cities today, including Lviv in the west and Odessa in the south, the cities' mayors and police said.
In the southern port of Odessa, a high-rise building caught fire after being hit by debris from a downed drone, the city's mayor said.
“As a result of another enemy attack, one of the high-rise buildings was damaged.” “The fire was immediately extinguished,” Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said on social media.
Ukraine's Southern Command said 14 attack drones were destroyed in the south of the country and there were no casualties.
The attack and wanton destruction were seen as revenge for Ukraine's missile attack on the large landing ship Novocherkassk in Crimea, which is believed to have killed at least 33 people and injured dozens.
According to Ukrainian sources, Ukraine was simultaneously attacked by Russian Kinzhal, Iskander, S-300, Kh-22 and Kh-32 missiles, deploying 18 strategic bombers as well as Iranian-supplied Shahed drones.
According to some reports, Kalibr missiles were also used.
“We have never seen so many targets on our monitor at the same time,” said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat.
Andriy Yermak, head of Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said: “There are dead people killed today by Russian missiles fired at civilian objects and residential buildings.”
“The enemy’s attack continues.”
More than a dozen powerful explosions were heard in Kiev.
One hit a high-rise building and caused a huge explosion.
Firefighters work on a building damaged after a Russian attack in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023
A video showed the damage caused by rocket attacks in Odessa today
A man walks away as a fire rages in a high-rise building in Odessa
The Artem aviation production plant, which makes air-to-air guided missiles, appeared to be on fire and black smoke was billowing from its premises.
“There is a fire on the site of warehouses in the Podilsk district,” the military administration of the city of Kiev said.
“According to preliminary information, there are injuries. Information will be clarified.'
Some were said to be under the rubble.
“Emergency services are on the way to the scene of the accident.”
Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said: “There are currently five injured people in the capital.
“In the Podolsk district, local doctors treated two men.
“One victim was hospitalized in Svyatoshynsky district and two in Shevchenkivsky district.
“The explosion damaged the building of the Lukyanovskaya metro station. “The station acts as a shelter.”
“According to preliminary information, a residential building was hit in Lviv. There are victims. A fire broke out in one of the city's lyceums. “Probably due to falling rocket debris,” the Lviv regional administration said.
Smoke rises into the sky over the city after a Russian missile and drone attack during the Russian attack on Ukraine on December 29, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine
Smoke rises into the sky over the city after a Russian missile and drone attack during the Russian attack on Ukraine on December 29, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine
An explosion of a missile is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian missile and drone strike during Russia's attack on Ukraine on December 29, 2020 in Kiev, Ukraine
An explosion of a missile is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian missile and drone strike during Russia's attack on Ukraine on December 29, 2023 in Kiev, Ukraine
Firefighters work at the site of a warehouse that was heavily damaged during a Russian missile attack during Russia's attack on Ukraine, December 29, 2023, in Kiev, Ukraine
Firefighters work at the site of a warehouse that was heavily damaged during a Russian missile attack during Russia's attack on Ukraine, December 29, 2023, in Kiev, Ukraine
The Yavoriv military training area near the city was reportedly hit.
In Dnipro, the Apollo shopping center was hit and fatalities were reported.
Mayor Borys Filatov said: “There are dead and injured in the morning attack on Dnipro.”
The video showed a maternity hospital being hit.
In Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said eight were injured in the area.
“So far one person has died as a result of the occupier attacks on Kharkiv, an approximately 35-year-old man.”
“Eight people were injured, doctors are providing assistance on site.”
In Odessa, debris from a kamikaze drone damaged a high-rise building.
“A fire broke out,” said the head of the Odessa regional administration, Oleg Kiper.
Information about the victims is being verified.
Kharkiv resident Olena Kurylo, who was dubbed the “face of war” after her bloody image went around the world at the start of the war in February 2022, said today: “None of us have this December right in Kharkiv and Ukraine Region, but this was the worst night with more than 23 rockets and constant air raid warnings since 3 a.m.
A massive explosion rocked the port of Feodosia in Crimea on Boxing Day as Ukraine claimed its missile attack had destroyed a large Russian navy ship, the Novocherkassk
The Boxing Day explosion on the Novocherkassk in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia
“My daughter is at an animal shelter with her boyfriend, they just had time to pick up their cats and run there.
“I hide in the basement of my house and read messages from friends from all over the country: Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Odessa…
“None of them slept, they kept grabbing their children and elderly people and running away.”
“I've been through so many emotions over the last two years – from the hope that ours [Russian] “Brothers” just can’t do this to us, to shock and tears, to anger and now hate.
“It can not go on like this.”
“They can’t just keep killing us in front of the rest of the world as if they have the right to do so.”
“They don’t! You have no right!
“Please hear us under the missiles, under their endless death drones, under their bombardment.”