Russia continues to step up assault on Ukraine with massive missile barrage | Russia-Ukraine war News

Russia has escalated its assaults on Ukraine as its invasion enters a 3rd calendar yr.

Russia has maintained its current intensification of air assaults on Ukraine with an enormous assault in a single day.

Tons of of missiles and drones struck the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv on Tuesday. The intensified assault on the nation’s two largest cities got here only a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to precise “revenge” for a deadly assault on the Russian metropolis of Belgorod.

Nevertheless, the strikes comply with a development that has seen Russia escalate its air attacks on Ukraine in current days. With the entrance line largely slowed down in trench warfare, Moscow has returned to its tactic from final winter, throughout which it focused infrastructure, particularly power and heating, leaving tens of millions of Ukrainians struggling to remain heat.

That has seen a hike in civilian casualties amid quite a few strikes on city areas. The assaults on Kyiv on Tuesday got here throughout peak hour, famous Al Jazeera reporter Assed Baig from the Ukrainian capital.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that 4 individuals had been killed and at the very least 92 injured, noting that Russia had launched about 170 Shahed assault drones and dozens of various missiles at Ukraine because the final day of 2023.

“For the third day already, our air defenders are doing unimaginable work,” Zelenskyy mentioned on Telegram messenger.

“This is among the most in depth strikes on the capital,” Baig mentioned. “We perceive there are elements of the town with out electrical energy and cellular connection.”

Sirens rang by the town as rescue companies rushed to areas hit by particles from missiles downed by Ukraine’s air defence programs.

Earlier, Ukraine’s air power mentioned it had intercepted 35 drones that Russia launched after midnight, concentrating on a number of cities. 4 strikes on Kharkiv killed at the very least one individual and injured 41, based on Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the Kharkiv area.

‘Terrorist assault’

The most recent escalation within the warfare started at 11pm on Thursday, when Russia launched a serious drone and missile raid throughout Ukraine, killing at the very least 31 and injuring about 160 individuals. The Ukrainian Armed Forces mentioned it had by no means seen so many places attacked concurrently.

On Saturday, Ukraine hit again on Russian soil, shelling the border metropolis of Belgorod. Russia reported that greater than two dozen individuals had been killed, together with 5 kids. Ukraine’s officers haven’t accepted duty for a collection of strikes on Russian territory.

Describing the assault on Belgorod as a “terrorist assault”, Putin vowed to mete out punishment throughout a go to to a army hospital on Monday. By this level, Russia had already rung within the new yr by launching a document variety of 90 Shahed-style drones on Ukraine.

Many of the drones have been downed by Ukrainian forces, however at the very least 5 have been reportedly killed and eight injured within the Black Sea port metropolis of Odesa.

In his New 12 months speech on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s struggling to safe increased support from the US and EU, vowed to lift Ukraine’s manufacturing of weapons. The nation will construct at the very least one million drones, he mentioned, promising Russia will the “wrath” of home manufacturing.

The elevated depth of the warfare might but assist Ukraine’s drive to persuade its companions of the hazards posed by Russia and the necessity to ship extra funding and weapons.

Amid Tuesday’s barrage, Poland, which final week reported {that a} Russian missile had briefly handed by its airspace, mentioned that it had mobilised two pairs of F-16 fighter jets and an air tanker.

NATO Secretary-Normal Jens Stoltenberg mentioned the alliance is monitoring the state of affairs and speaking with Polish officers.