Russia Launches New Strikes On Ukraine As It Mourns 24 Dead

(Bloomberg) -- Russia followed through on a vow to retaliate for what it called a deadly Ukrainian attack on the border city of Belgorod, launching new missile strikes on Kharkiv.

At least 26 people were injured in ballistic missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s second largest city Saturday night and Sunday morning. Ukraine’s government said it shot down 21 of 49 drones fired overnight. 

Saturday’s attack on Belgorod — the deadliest in Russia since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine - killed 24 people, including children, and injured over 100, according to Russia’s health ministry. It followed an earlier drone swarm directed at several regions, including Moscow.

Ukraine hasn’t claimed responsibility for or commented on the strike, a day after Russia’s biggest aerial bombardment of Ukraine in the 22-month conflict to date. More bodies were discovered in Kyiv overnight. 

Ukrainian security sources told local media that strikes on Saturday were aimed at Russian military targets. 

Hostilities have escalated in the waning days of 2023, and as a war conceived by Russia as a “special military operation” that would topple Ukraine’s government within days or weeks approaches on the two-year mark.  

Among the wounded in the city of about 340,000 people, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Ukraine’s border, are 25 - including six children - who sustained serious injuries. They’ve been transported to hospitals in Moscow.   

Read more: Russia Vows Revenge for Strike on City Near Ukraine Border 

“Various damage was seen in 37 multi-story buildings, 453 apartments, three private houses and seven social facilities,” Gladkov said. “The owners of 53 damaged cars have been identified. Damage assessment work continues.”     

Russia on Friday carried out its biggest missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine, killing over 40 people across the country, including 23 in Kyiv. More bodies were discovered under rubble in the capital overnight, said Kyiv’s military administration chief Serhiy Popko.

Per Russia’s request, United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss the strike on Belgorod.

Khaled Khiari, assistant secretary-general in the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, condemned all attacks on cities, town and villages, both in Ukraine and in Russia. 

“The fighting and bloodshed must cease, the war must come to an end,” he said. 

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia repeated a defense ministry claim, made without evidence, that Belgorod had been hit with prohibited cluster munitions. He called Western states “complicit” for their provision of weapons to Ukraine. 

Read more: Russia Slams Ukraine With Record Missile Barrage, Killing 39 

Russia’s defense ministry vowed that the Belgorod “crime will not go unpunished,” hours before Kremlin troops launched another missile barrage on Ukraine. 

The chief target was Kharkiv, which sits about 95 kilometers south of Belgorod. 

A range of civilian infrastructure - including the Kharkiv Palace Hotel, popular with journalists and international visitors, as well as medical clinics, shops and apartment buildings - was damaged in the strikes, Ukraine’s national police said.

In a statement, Russia’s defense ministry referred to a “former” hotel which it said was housing intelligence forces “directly involved” in the strike on Belgorod, as well as foreign mercenaries planning raids into Russian territory. 

Six or more Iskander ballistic missiles were fired at the city late Saturday, Oleh Synyehubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on Telegram. Several more buildings were hit in a drone strike early Sunday. 

Air raids sounded across much of Ukraine before the UN Security Council met, including the Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Cherkasy, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions. 

More Russian drones were reported in Ukraine early Sunday, with reports of explosions in Kyiv. Air raid alerts were active across most of the country and later lifted. 

(Updates with new casualty numbers, Russian defense ministry comment.)

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