A bloody end to the year that doesn't bode well for 2024. As Ukraine continues to dig through the rubble left on Friday by one of the most violent Russian bombings since the invasion began, which killed at least 39 people, war is violently breaking out of Russia: an attack on Belgorod, which Moscow calls “Kiev -Terrorists” left 14 dead and over 100 injured in what appears to be the bloodiest episode on Russian territory in two years of conflict.
“This attack will not go unpunished,” thundered the Russian Defense Ministry, saying anti-aircraft fire had managed to intercept two missiles and “most” of those fired against the town near the Ukrainian border – otherwise, it stressed, the consequences would be would have been even worse. And while President Vladimir Putin is “informed” of the situation, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed the finger at “EU countries that continue to supply weapons to Ukraine” and against “Britain, which in coordination with the US inciting the Kiev government.” regime to carry out terrorist actions because they realized that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed.” Moscow subsequently requested and succeeded in convening a UN Security Council meeting on the incident.
A man and two children were killed and four other people were injured in a first rocket attack on Belgorod on Friday evening, the region's governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that the rockets hit 10 residential buildings and two vehicles. On Saturday afternoon, a new attack occurred in the city: burning cars and damaged buildings can be seen in the images published on social media, and rockets apparently landed near a cinema and also near a publicly accessible ice rink.
“Among the 14 killed in Belgorod were three children. Another 108 people, including 15 children, were injured,” Gladkow continued, and 12 adults are in serious condition. The Ukrainian authorities, as on other occasions, did not confirm the attacks on Belgorod, but the day before, President Volodymyr Zelensky had promised “a response” to the 160 missiles and drones fired across Ukraine: the death toll rose to 39, 160 people There were 16 victims in Kiev alone and Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has ordered a day of mourning for the city on January 1st.
Russia claims it only attacked military infrastructure and that Ukrainian air defenses were responsible for the deaths. But the bombings don't stop in the meantime: three people were killed in the attacks in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv regions in the past few hours. Meanwhile, Poland has asked Moscow for explanations after a Russian missile entered its airspace in the massive attack on December 29. The Russian chargé d'affaires Andrei Ordash was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw and replied “niet”:
“Moscow will not make a statement until there is concrete evidence to support the accusation, which it considers to be “unfounded.” The diplomat then recalled the incident in November 2022, when a rocket killed two people in a Polish village on the border: “At that time they tried to blame the Russian side for this incident. Then it turned out that the rocket had been fired from “Ukrainian Army”.
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