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01-01-2024
KYIV: Russia unleashed its biggest air attack of the war on Ukraine on Friday, killing 31 civilians, wounding more than 160 others and hitting cities and infrastructure across the country, officials said.
NATO member Poland said a Russian missile appeared to have flown into its airspace for some 40 km before returning to Ukraine under three minutes later but the Russian charge d’affaires, summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry, said Warsaw had provided no evidence of a missile entering its airspace.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said the assault showed there should be “no talk of a truce” with the Kremlin at a time when uncertainty hangs over the future of Western support for Kyiv.
“Today, millions of Ukrainians awoke to the loud sound of explosions. I wish those sounds of explosions in Ukraine could be heard all around the world,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, urging allies to keep sending long-term aid.
At a hastily-convened UN Security Council session, most council members, including the United States, France and Britain, condemned the attacks.
Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said Moscow had attacked only military infrastructure and that Ukraine’s air defense systems were responsible for civilian casualties.
In the capital Kyiv at least nine people were killed and 30 wounded after a warehouse, residential buildings and another uninhabited property were hit, officials said.
Kyiv resident Mariia told media she had been awoken by a “horrible sound” and taken shelter in her bathroom.
“It was so frightening. A missile was flying and everything was buzzing, whirring. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to run down to the shelter,” she said. “As I went inside the bathroom, the mirror flew off (the wall).”
The air force said it shot down 87 cruise missiles and 27 drones of a total 158 aerial “targets” fired by Russia. Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said it was the “most massive air attack of this war” and involved 18 strategic bombers.
Army chief General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said infrastructure and industrial and military facilities had been targeted.
“Russia attacked with everything it has in its arsenal… Approximately 110 missiles were fired, most of which were shot down,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram messenger.
Ukraine has been warning for weeks that Russia could be stockpiling missiles to launch major air attacks on the energy system like it did last winter.
“It is obvious that with the stocks of missiles that the aggressor state has, it can and will continue such attacks,” Umerov said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
