Russia launched a new drone attack on Ukraine on Saturday evening, after promising that strikes on the Russian border town of Belgorod earlier in the day “would not go unpunished”.
The Ukrainian Air Force announced on Sunday that it had shot down 21 of the 49 drones launched by Russian forces overnight.
Twenty-eight people were injured in an attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday. A central hotel, apartment buildings, a kindergarten, shops and administrative buildings were damaged, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had struck “decision-making centers and military installations” in Kharkiv, specifying that its strike on the Kharkiv Palace hotel had “destroyed representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” involved in the “terrorist attack”. in Belgorod.
In the kyiv region surrounding the capital, a Russian drone attack caused a fire in critical infrastructure, local officials said. They did not further identify the facility.
Bombing in the center of the Russian border town of Belgorod killed 24 people, including three children, on Saturday. Another 108 people were injured in the strike, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Sunday, making it one of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began there 22 months ago.
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Russian authorities accused kyiv of carrying out the attack, which came a day after an 18-hour Russian aerial bombardment of Ukraine that killed at least 41 civilians.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it identified the munitions used in the attack as Czech-made Vampire rockets and Olkha missiles equipped with cluster warheads. He provided no additional information and The Associated Press was unable to verify his claims.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” the ministry said in a statement posted on social media.
At an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council requested by Russia on Saturday evening, envoy Vasily Nebenzya accused kyiv of a “terrorist attack”. In comments carried by Russian state media, Nebenzya claimed that Ukraine had launched “a deliberate act of terrorism directed against civilians.”
Ukrainians are preparing for new attacks. Last year, a violent attack by Russia on New Year’s Eve killed at least three civilians.
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