Russia unleashed fresh hell on Ukrainian civilians Tuesday, killing four and injuring more than 100 with its latest ballistic missile bombardment of residential areas.
“January 2, 2024. Another attack by Russian savages. Almost a hundred missiles of various types. At least 70 missiles were shot down. Nearly 60 of them were intercepted in the Kyiv area. There were also severe strikes on Kharkiv,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address, adding that “Russia will be held accountable.”
The Ukrainian capital appeared to be the main target of the latest attack, with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles raining down and setting off numerous fires across the city. An 86-year-old woman was among two killed in one residential building, local authorities said.
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“Perhaps today was the most frightening because there were so many explosions,” Kyiv resident Myroslava Shcherba told the Associated Press.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, repeated its oft-repeated lie that its “high-precision missiles and drones” had struck “military-industrial facilities.”
The bombardment came just days after dozens of civilians were killed in Moscow’s biggest air attack on Kyiv since the war started. It also came after the Kremlin vowed revenge for the Saturday shelling of the border city of Belgorod, which Russian officials claimed this week killed 25 people.
The Russian military also managed to drop bombs on its own territory Tuesday in its haste to unleash destruction on Ukraine. Several residents of a village in the Voronezh region were evacuated after the military dropped a missile on the area in what the Russian Defense Ministry called an “abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition.”
The governor, Alexander Gusev, confirmed the mishap in a statement on Telegram, urging residents to “stay calm” and promising that the owners of seven homes that were destroyed would be compensated. Gusev said no injuries had been reported.
Russian propagandists, meanwhile, rushed to blame Ukraine. State TV host Olga Skabeyeva shared footage on Telegram of the “huge crater” and “destroyed homes” at the scene after what she described as a Ukrainian “terrorist attack.”
