The Ukrainian authorities have estimated 159 injured and 39 dead “so far” the victims of the “massive” bombing carried out by the Russian army through planes and drones during the last hours. “We continue working to eliminate the consequences of yesterday’s Russian attack [viernes]”, wrote the president Volodymyr Zelensky on social networks. The attacks sparked international condemnation and new promises of military support for Ukraine, which has been fighting invading Russian troops since February 2022.
The Ukrainian army has launched a reply that has resulted in at least 14 dead in the city of Belgorod, with 330,000 inhabitants and bordering Ukraine, as reported this Saturday by the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations. “Twelve adults and two children died and 108 people were injured, including fifteen minors,” the Russian ministry detailed.
Belgorod has been the Russian region hardest hit by border fighting since the military invasion began in February 2022. “This crime will not go unpunished. The Kiev regime, by committing this crime, is trying to divert attention from the defeat in the front and also provoke us to commit similar acts,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
Sources from the Ukrainian secret services have told the press that what happened in Belgorod is a consequence of “unprofessional actions of the Russian air defense” and also “intentional provocations.”
The Ukrainian response takes place hours after Russia launched 158 missiles and drones against Ukraine, of which 114 were destroyed, according to Zelensky’s General Staff. Rescuers searched this Saturday among the rubble in Kyivwhere 16 people were killed in one of the fiercest Russian attacks since the start of the war.
Schools, a maternity hospital, shopping malls and apartment blocks were some of the buildings hit by Friday’s bombing, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The Kremlin has sought to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses in most major cities, launching a wave of drones and missiles fired from planes and from territories it controls.
Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, stated last Friday that it was “the most massive missile attack“with the exception of those that occurred in the first days of the war. The Ukrainian army also launched attacks against Russia, where the Ministry of Defense claimed that its anti-aircraft systems intercepted 13 missiles and that 32 drones were destroyed in the border regions of Bryansk and Kursk, as well as in the Oryol and Moscow regions.
This Saturday, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has indicated that “two children” died, without specifying their ages, and several people were injured by a Ukrainian bombing in the city of the same name, located about 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Russian authorities earlier reported that an attack on a residential building in Belgorod left one dead and four wounded.
“Stop this terror”
The Russian military claimed to have “carried out 50 group attacks and one mass attack” against military facilities in Ukraine over the past week, adding that “all targets were hit.”
UN Undersecretary General Mohamed Khiaricondemned the “terrible” bombings” as “the latest in a series of increasingly intense attacks by the Russian Federation.”
In the face of continued Russian attacks, Ukraine urges its Western allies to provide “more support and strength to stop this terror,” said presidential adviser Andriy Yermak. US President Joe Biden on Friday demanded that Congress overcome divisions and “act without further delay” to approve the shipment of aid, after Washington announced the disbursement of the last support package available to the government without his approval. For its part, the United Kingdom announced that it will send nearly 200 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine to strengthen its defense capacity.
Six regions bombed
The attacks targeted at least six Ukrainian regions, including Kharkiv (northeast), Lviv (west), Dnipro (east) and Odessa (south). The Ukrainian Ministry of Health has reported that a maternity hospital “was badly damaged” in Dnipro but that staff and patients took shelter in time. At the time of the attack there were 12 women in labor and four newborns inside, according to Sergui Lisak, governor of the region.
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The governor has also reported six deaths and 28 injuries in attacks on a shopping center, private homes and administrative buildings. Kharkiv suffered about 20 bombings that killed three people and injured 11 others, according to the governor Oleg Siniegubov.
In Zaporizhia (south), the governor Yuri Malashko reported seven dead and 13 injured, and four people died in the Odessa region. The region of Lvivin western Ukraine, does not typically experience much shelling, but one person was killed and 15 others were wounded on Friday, according to the Interior Ministry.