Moscow declared on Sunday that it had struck “military” targets in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, with local authorities assuring on the contrary that they were civilian buildings, in retaliation for the unprecedented attack which left 24 dead the day before in Belgorod, Russia.
On Saturday, Russia assured that it would not let the missile and rocket attack against this town located around thirty kilometers from the Ukrainian border go “unpunished”. Moscow claims that kyiv is responsible, but Ukraine has so far remained silent.
Strikes against strikes
These bombings killed 24 people and injured 108 others, according to a new report announced by the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov. If kyiv regularly carries out attacks on Russian territory, in particular using drones, this is the deadliest strike for civilians in Russia since the start of the conflict in February 2022.
“In response to this terrorist act, Russian armed forces struck decision-making centers and military installations” in Kharkiv, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
Russia denies attacks on civilians
The governor of the targeted Ukrainian region, Oleg Sinegoubov, nevertheless assured that rockets had hit a hotel, residential buildings, clinics and hospitals on Saturday evening, leaving 28 injured. Among them, two teenagers and a Briton, who was the security advisor to a team of German journalists, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Russia admitted to having targeted a “former hotel complex”, the Kharkiv Palace, but assured that there were members of military intelligence and the Ukrainian armed forces “involved” in the attack on Belgorod, as well as “mercenaries foreigners.”
The drone attack
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said drone attacks had also damaged “cafes, residential buildings and offices”, without reporting any casualties. “On New Year’s Eve, the Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not afraid,” he added.
For its part, the Ukrainian air force claimed that six Russian guided missiles had targeted Kharkiv. It also said it had shot down 21 of the 49 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia towards its territory during the night and particularly targeting the south and east.
Escalation in conflict
Recent days have been marked by an escalation of violence between Russia and Ukraine. On Friday, Ukraine was devastated by a missile attack that it said was the most massive since the start of the conflict, excluding its very first days. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday afternoon that 39 people had died across the country, but more deaths have since been announced.
On Saturday, during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the Belgorod strike, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia accused Kiev of “an indiscriminate and deliberate attack against a civilian target “. British Representative Thomas Phipps retorted that “if Russia wants to blame anyone for Russian deaths in this war, it should start with President Putin.”
On Sunday, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky are both due to deliver expected New Year’s speeches, after a year 2023 marked by the failure of Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive and the near-total freeze of the front line.