The entire area of Ukraine is under air alert after a Wave of bombings Russians in the capital, Kyivand in three other cities. According to Ukrainian authorities, at least 31 people were killed and more than 120 injured by 158 drones and missiles fired by Ukraine Russia this Friday the 29th, during an attack that lasted about 18 hours.
Poland said a Russian missile entered and exited its airspace towards the territory of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian President, Volodmir Zelensky, shared on his social networks a video with images of the attack that began on Thursday evening and continued throughout the morning. According to Zelenski, a maternity hospital, educational buildings, residential buildings and shopping centers, among others, were hit by the rockets.
Smoke from a building damaged by the Russian missile attack in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, December 29, 2023. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
“We will definitely respond to terrorist attacks. And we will continue to fight for the safety of our entire country, every city and every citizen. Russian terror must and will lose,” the president said in his profile on X (formerly Twitter).
Kiev reports that the Russian attack began at dawn with 36 Iranianmade Shahed136 kamikaze drones from the north and southeast 27 of them were reportedly destroyed.
Then, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. local time (10 p.m. on Thursday and 1 a.m. on Friday, Brazil time), 18 Tupolev Tu95 strategic bombers were deployed to fire at least 90 Kh101 family cruise missiles. 55 and Kh555, an updated version of the previous version, subsonic missile and Soviet production. Of these, 87 would have been shot down.
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The Kharkiv region (east) was hit by at least 14 cruise missiles fired from Crimea and the Russian regions of Kursk and Belgorod, according to the Air Force. The Ukrainian military also claims Moscow deployed five MiG31 jets that hit targets with five Kinjal hypersonic missiles, as well as five additional missiles used by Su35 aircraft.
Firefighters extinguish a fire at an apartment building damaged after a Russian attack in Odessa, Ukraine, on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. Photo: Artem Perfilov/AP
According to the number of projectiles identified and launched by the Ukrainian military, nine drones, as well as 14 cruise missiles, five Kinjal hypersonic missiles and five targets deployed by Su35 jets hit land targets.
The city of Kharkiv has been hit by at least 10 attacks, with one civilian dead so far. The municipality's mayor, Igor Terekhov, said the attacks disrupted electricity and public transport services. In the provincial capital of Dnipro, a projectile hit a shopping center, causing a fire and damage to a maternity ward and a children's hospital.
In Lviv, a city recently targeted because it lies in Ukraine's far west, a rocket hit an apartment block, killing one person and wounding three, according to the head of the regional military administration, Maksym Kozytskyi. In Odessa, authorities have so far recorded two deaths and 15 hospitalizations of civilians, including two children aged 6 and 8 who were injured in rocket attacks on homes.
Dozens of people were injured, with damage reported at a maternity hospital in the city of Dnipro and at residential buildings in the western city of Lviv near the border with Poland, the port of Odessa and the city of Kharkiv. The Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, where the world's largest nuclear power plant is located, were also targeted.
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Rescuers work on the site of an apartment building damaged after a Russian attack in Odessa, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. Photo: Artem Perfilov / AP
People react to the death of one person in a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhia, Ukraine, Friday, December 29, 2023. Photo: Andriy Andriyenko / AP
Seven deaths have been confirmed in Kiev, with people trapped under the rubble of a warehouse damaged by falling debris, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the messaging app Telegram eight have already been rescued. According to the Interior Ministry, 24 people were injured in the capital.
Kiev resident Mariia told Portal she was woken up by a “terrible noise” at home and sought refuge in her bathroom. “It was so scary. A rocket flew and everything hummed. I didn’t know what to do, I wanted to run to the shelter,” she said. “When I entered the bathroom, the mirror flew off the wall.”
In the Black Sea port city of Odessa, two people were killed and at least 15 injured, including two children, when rockets struck residential buildings, the regional governor said.
“We can say that it was a massive attack,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on television.
In this photo provided by the Press Office of the Presidential Office of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodmir Zelensky visits Avdiivka, the scene of fierce fighting with Russian troops in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Friday, December 29, 2023. Photo: Presidential Office of Ukraine via AP
Ukraine has been warning for weeks that Russia may be stockpiling missiles to launch a major air campaign against the country's energy system. Last year, millions of people were left in the dark as Russian attacks hit the power grid
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The Energy Department reported supply cuts in four regions following the attack. In the Lviv region, impacts on a critical infrastructure facility have been confirmed, the presidential office said, without specifying which one.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said the airstrike showed there should be “no talk of a ceasefire” with the Kremlin at a time when there is uncertainty about the future of Western financial and military support for Kiev.
“Today millions of Ukrainians woke up to the loud sound of explosions. “I wish these sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard around the world,” Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said, calling on allies to continue longterm military assistance.
On Wednesday 27, the United States announced the release of $250 million (R1.2 billion) in military aid to Ukraine. This is the last support package available that does not require approval from the US Congress, where Republican representatives and senators are leading initiatives to block new aid if the Democratic administration does not agree to domestic measures to curb migration at the border with Mexico. /AFP, NYT and AP