War in Ukraine: After a massive attack that killed more than 30 people, Kyiv sends its drones to Russia

Less than 24 hours after a major attack on all regions of Ukraine, Russia suffered from the Ukrainian response: the Russian Ministry of Defense claims on Telegram that on Friday evening it destroyed 32 Ukrainian drones in four regions of the Federation from the Russian side.

“Yesterday evening, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped.” Russian air defense intercepted “32 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territories of the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions.” One person died in the Belgorod region, the Russian news agency TASS reports.

Russia launched the biggest air attack of its war against Ukraine on Friday, killing 31 civilians, wounding more than 160 and damaging cities and infrastructure across the country. According to Kyiv, Russian forces launched 158 missiles and drones at critical infrastructure, industrial and military sites.

115 people were shot. The rest or debris of destroyed ammunition also damaged “more than 100 private houses, as well as 45 multi-storey buildings, schools, two churches, hospitals, a maternity hospital and numerous commercial warehouses,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said in his message. daily appeal on Friday evening. “This is the heaviest attack ever carried out by this human scum,” he insisted.

The civilian death toll now stands at 31, including nine in the Ukrainian capital, albeit far from the front lines, and more than 160 wounded. Eight people were killed and another 13 were injured in the southeast of the Zaporozhye region, six people died in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, three in the east of the Kharkov region, four in the Odessa port, one person died at home in Lviv, the city is usually the most economical, because is very far from Russia.

“Ukrainians are again forced to spend holidays looking for housing”

In Kyiv, an explosion damaged a metro station located opposite the plant of the Artem company, which produces components for various military missiles. Authorities did not say whether the plant was directly affected. In November 2022, Russia coordinated an attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure using 96 missiles. On March 9, the Russian army fired 81 missiles. It’s probably time to replenish the arsenal.

“The strike program launched by Russian forces on December 29 appears to be the culmination of months of Russian experimentation with various combinations of drones and missiles, as well as efforts to test Ukrainian air defenses,” the Institute for the Study of War said in a report. This US think tank, which studies the daily achievements of the Russian and Ukrainian armies, believes that Russia will continue to launch large-scale strikes against Ukraine, especially since Ukrainian forces have not intercepted any ballistic or hypersonic ballistic missiles. sent from Moscow.

“The year 2023 ends tragically, as it began, with devastating violence against the Ukrainian people,” criticized UN Deputy Secretary-General Khaled Khiari. “Ukrainians are again forced to spend the holidays in search of shelter, clearing rubble and burying the dead in sub-zero temperatures,” he added.

Most members of the Security Council, including the US, France and the UK, condemned the attacks on Ukraine. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to act quickly on Ukraine’s behalf following a “massive bombing” of the Russian military, while elected officials on Capitol Hill fail to agree on a major aid package for Kyiv. The UK announced the dispatch of 200 ASRAAM missiles, adapted to power ground-based air defense systems already delivered by the British to Ukraine at the end of 2022.