Cities and infrastructure across the country are hit with Russian drones and missiles, killing 16 people and injuring dozens.
Emergency workers clear rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multistorey building, leaving many people under the debris in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro [File: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
Russia has unleashed a huge air assault against Ukraine, illustrating Kyiv’s desperate need for additional defence capabilities.
A wave of Russian strikes, using drones and several types of missiles, battered Ukrainian cities on Friday in one of the largest and fiercest bombardments in recent months. With civilian areas across the country hit, Ukrainian officials said the broadside shows the need for increased support from its international partners, which it is struggling to secure.
At least 16 people are reported to have been killed and nearly 100 injured as Russia targeted the capital, Kyiv, the northern city of Kharkiv, the eastern city of Dnipro, Odesa in the south and Lviv in the west.
With the front line largely bogged down in trench warfare, Russia has in recent weeks returned to its tactic from last winter, during which it targeted infrastructure, especially energy and heating, leaving millions of Ukrainians struggling to stay warm.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted that the barrage on Friday targeted critical infrastructure. The Ministry of Energy reported that four Ukrainian regions in the north and south were facing power cuts.
Missiles and drones were also reported to have hit numerous civilian sites, including residential buildings. Falling debris caused fires in a residential building and a warehouse in Kyiv and blasts were heard in Lviv, officials said.
A metro station building in Kyiv being used as a shelter was damaged, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. Twenty-two Russian strikes were recorded in Kharkiv, damaging a hospital, residential buildings and an industrial facility, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“We understand that four areas have been hit here in the capital, Kyiv,” Al Jazeera’s Assed Baig reported. “Dnipro, we’ve heard from the mayor there that said there are dead and injured and that the rescue teams are working. Now in the western city of Lviv, we heard two sites were hit there, and again rescue teams are working through the damage.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that overall, 110 drones and missiles were fired at Ukraine overnight, the highest number in a single night.
The air force later reported that it had destroyed 114 out of 158 missiles and drones.
The Russian military confirmed on Friday that it had since launched dozens of attacks on Ukraine.
“In the period from December 23 to 29, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out 50 group strikes and one massive strike. … All targets were hit,” it said in a daily update.
Hard to intercept
The Russian military claimed in that report that its attacks were aimed at military facilities.
However, Kyiv pointed out the civilian deaths and damage caused by the barrage and said it illustrates its dire need for increased support from its Western allies, which has become bogged down by political manoeuvring in Washington and Brussels.
Hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles, including the X-22, which is hard to intercept, were used in the attacks, said Ukraine’s air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat. “We have not had so many red enemy targets on our monitors for a long time.”
“We are doing everything to strengthen our air shield, but the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terror,” presidential aide Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
Zelenskyy thanked the United States for releasing the last remaining package of weapons available for Ukraine under existing authorisation.
But uncertainty surrounds further aid. The US, Ukraine’s biggest single-country donor, has sent more than $40bn since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, but right-wing Republicans are opposing President Joe Biden’s bid to win approval for additional spending.
The impasse is mirrored in the European Union, where Hungary is blocking a 50 billion euro ($55bn) aid package. The bloc is due to revisit the issue in January, but it is understood that it will be unable to uphold promises to send 1 million rounds of ammunition.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, continues to argue for the West to increase its support. “To defend freedom and security not only in Ukraine and Europe but also in the United States, we must continue to respond to ongoing Russian aggression,” he said.
Western allies responded to the huge barrage on Friday by reiterating their support.
The US ambassador to Kyiv wrote on X that the strikes showed “Ukraine needs funding now to continue to fight for freedom from such horror in 2024.”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned Russia’s “cowardly and indiscriminate targeting” of civilians.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the assault illustrated that “Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”
He added: “We will not let him win. We must continue to stand with Ukraine – for as long as it takes.”
The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “Russia is continuing its strategy of terror aimed at destroying Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in order to undermine resilience of the Ukrainian population.”
“France will continue to support Ukraine and provide it with the necessary assistance to enable it to exercise its self-defence, in close coordination with its partners.”
