Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that its forces struck “strategic targets” in massive overnight strike over Ukraine using Oreshnik hypersonic and several other missiles. Kyiv claimed that Russia launched 36 missiles, 242 drones.Ukraine’s foreign minister said the Oreshnik missile strike landed close to the EU and Nato border. He warned that the attack posed a “grave threat” to European security. He further called it a ‘test’ for Kyiv allies.
The attack came after Moscow rejected the latest post-war peacekeeping plan. It was part of a massive attack that set apartment blocks ablaze and killed at least four people in the capital Kyiv.Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a statement condemning the attacks, detailing the extent of damage and revealing that a building of Qatar Embassy was damaged. “In Kyiv and the region, the aftermath of the massive Russian strike is still being dealt with. All necessary services are deployed. Twenty residential buildings alone were damaged. Recovery operations after the strikes also continue in the Lviv region and other regions of our country. Unfortunately, as of now, it is known that four people have been killed in the capital alone. Among them is an ambulance crew member. My condolences to their families and loved ones. Dozens of people were injured. There was also a second strike on one of the residential buildings – precisely at the moment when first responders were providing assistance after the first strike,” he said.“In addition to our civilian infrastructure and energy facilities, a building of the Embassy of Qatar was damaged last night by a Russian drone – Qatar, a state that does so much to mediate with Russia in order to secure the release of prisoners of war and civilians held in Russian prisons,” he added.The Russian ministry did not provide further details on the locations or extent of the strikes, but said the attack was carried out in retaliation for a drone strike in December that it claimed targeted a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as reported by AFP.Ukraine, however, had denied any involvement in that attack, which occurred at a time when peace talks were going on. “It is absurd that Russia attempts to justify this strike with the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened,” Sybiga added in his statement, describing the Russian version of events as Putin’s “hallucinations.” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been continuing with both countries pointing fingers at other for various attacks. Ukrainian authorities said on Friday, that Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack using drones and missiles, killing four people and injuring at least 22 in Kyiv, The assault also targeted critical infrastructure in the western city of Lviv. Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said the strike involved an unidentified ballistic missile.Among those killed in Kyiv was an emergency medical worker, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Ukraine’s security service said five rescue workers were injured while responding to sites hit during the ongoing attacks. Multiple districts of the capital were affected. In the Desnyanskyi district, a drone crashed onto the roof of a multi-storey building, while at another location in the same area, the first two floors of a residential building were damaged. In the Dnipro district, debris from a drone struck a multi-storey building, triggering a fire.Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the strikes disrupted water supply and electricity in parts of the city. The attack came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of Russia’s plans for a major offensive. He said Moscow was seeking to exploit freezing conditions in the capital, with icy roads and streets complicating movement and emergency response.Meanwhile, a Ukrainian attack knocked out heat and electricity supplies for more than half a million people in Russia’s border region of Belgorod, the regional governor said on Friday.“According to the results of the enemy’s overnight attack on Belgorod region’s utility infrastructure, as of 6:00 am today, 556,000 people in six municipalities are without power,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, adding that nearly the same number were also without heating as temperatures remained near freezing, as reported by AFP.
