Russia launched a vast series of strikes on several cities in Ukraine, including the capital kyiv, on Friday morning, with “a record number of missiles”, which, according to Ukrainian authorities, left at least 30 dead and 160 injured. NATO member Poland said Friday that a Russian missile had entered its airspace from Ukraine, an incident that could be linked to the strikes.
A maternity ward, educational facilities, a shopping mall, multi-story residential buildings and private homes, a commercial storage, and a parking lot. Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and other cities.
Today, Russia used nearly every type of weapon in its… pic.twitter.com/q5q8Q98Njr
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 29, 2023
“Today, Russia used almost all types of weapons in its arsenal,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the social network X. According to the Air Force, 158 missiles and drones were fired on Ukraine, of which 114 were destroyed.
Information to remember:
- Russia launched a large series of strikes on several cities in Ukraine on Friday morning
- At least 30 people died and 160 injured
- Poland said on Friday that a Russian missile entered its airspace from Ukraine
- Ukraine ‘needs funds now,’ says US ambassador
- France condemns Russian “strategy of terror” in Ukraine
Biden calls on Congress to “act without further delay” after “massive bombings”
US President Joe Biden urged Congress on Friday to “act without further delay” after the “massive bombings” in Ukraine, while elected officials on Capitol Hill failed to agree on a major aid package for Kiev.
“Unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue sending the much-needed weapons and air defense systems to Ukraine to protect its people,” warned the manager.
London announces the sending of 200 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine
The United Kingdom announced on Friday the sending of around 200 anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine to strengthen its defenses, after the wave of Russian strikes on several cities in the country, calling on its allies to “redouble their efforts” to support Kiev militarily.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “testing Ukraine’s defenses and the West’s resolve…and today’s dispatch of an air defense package sends an irrefutable message that, in the face of Russian barbarity, the “The United Kingdom remains absolutely committed to supporting Ukraine,” British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said in a statement.
Zelensky says he went to Avdiivka, eastern town under attack by Russian forces
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that he had visited Avdiïvka, a town on the Eastern Front which has for months suffered repeated assaults from Russian forces trying to encircle it. “Avdiivka, I visited the positions of the 110th mechanized brigade,” Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, accompanying his message with a video showing him in front of a sign with the name of the city and presenting decorations to soldiers.
Stressing that this is “one of the most difficult areas of the front line”, Volodymyr Zelensky said he “personally thanked the soldiers” and “discussed the defense situation and essential needs with the commander “of unity. “I thank everyone on the front lines for their service, for this year that the entire country survived thanks to these soldiers,” he added.
Poland says Russian missile entered its airspace before leaving
Poland said a Russian missile entered its airspace on Friday morning before leaving in the direction of Ukraine. “Everything indicates that a Russian missile entered Polish airspace. We spotted it using radar. It left this space” immediately, in the direction of Ukraine, declared head of the General Staff of the Polish Army, General Wieslaw Kukula.
“The most massive missile attack overall”
“This is the most massive missile attack in general,” excluding the first days of the war, the air force spokesperson told AFP Ukrainian, Yuri Ignat.
The strikes targeted “civilian installations, civilian buildings,” assured Andriï Iermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff. “We are doing everything possible to strengthen our air shield. But the world must see that we need more help and means to stop this terror,” he added on the Telegram social network.
A statement echoed by American Ambassador Bridget Brink, according to whom “Ukraine needs funds now to continue fighting to free itself from such horror in 2024”. On Wednesday, Washington released the last tranche of military aid granted to kyiv until further notice by the American Congress.
France condemns Russia’s “strategy of terror”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that these strikes demonstrated that Vladimir Putin “will stop at nothing”. France condemned “with the greatest firmness” a “strategy of terror”. The head of European Union diplomacy, Josep Borrell, denounced “cowardly strikes” and promised that the EU would stand by Ukraine for as long as necessary.
Russian fire left at least 30 dead and 160 injured, according to the national police, who said that people may still be under the rubble. Russia limited itself to indicating in its daily briefing that “all targets have been achieved”, as it does every day. She claimed to have targeted military infrastructure, ammunition depots and places where Ukrainian soldiers were deployed in more than 50 strikes, including a “major” one in Ukraine between December 23 and 29.
Dnipro maternity hospital ‘severely damaged’
The UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, condemned on X “a hateful wave of attacks”, illustrating the “horrible reality” experienced by Ukrainians.
In kyiv, where the “anti-aircraft defense is actively functioning” according to its mayor Vitali Klitschko, AFP journalists heard several loud explosions in the early hours. In the Podil district, in the north of kyiv, a 3,000 m2 hangar was engulfed in flames. A metro station used as an air raid shelter was damaged, as well as several apartment buildings and other hangars. A maternity hospital in Dnipro was also “severely damaged”, but without casualties, according to the Ministry of Health.
Poland spots flying object ‘arrived from border with Ukraine’
In Poland, search operations are underway after a flying object proving to be a Russian missile, “arriving from the border with Ukraine”, was spotted by radar near the border town of Zamosc, in the is from the country. In November 2022, a Ukrainian missile fell on the Polish village of Przewodow, near the border with Ukraine, killing two civilians. The incident briefly sparked fears of an extension of the conflict.
The wave of Russian strikes ends a difficult year for Ukraine, marked by the failure of its summer counter-offensive and a resumption of initiative by Moscow’s forces, who this week claimed the capture of the town of Marinka on the eastern front. They also come in a context of running out of Western aid to kyiv, both in Europe and in the United States. A situation which threatens the country to run out of ammunition and funds.
Ukraine’s financial needs are ‘critical and urgent’
US Ambassador Bridget Brink said on Thursday that Ukraine’s financial needs were “critical and urgent”. President Zelensky once again urged the United States on Thursday to maintain its “essential” assistance, after the release of a new tranche of 250 million dollars (225 million EUR), the last without a new vote in the American Congress, which refuses for the moment to allocate more money.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban vetoed a new EU aid package, a problem that Europeans hope to resolve at a new summit in early February 2024.