Russian on Saturday launched air attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Kharkiv in the hours leading into New Year's Eve, Ukrainian officials said. This came after Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine for its shelliing of border city of Belgorod, which killed 21 people.
Russia launched six rocket attacks on the city, the head of Kharkiv's regional administration said, adding that at least two children and a foreign national were among those injured.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram: "All relevant emergency services are already on the site. Information about potential casualties is being clarified."
In Kherson, one person had been killed during the Russian shelling of a residential building. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones had been shot down across the Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, and Mykolaiv regions.
Russia has claimed that at least 21 people, including three children, were killed and 110 others wounded in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian border city of Belgorod. The attack came a day after the Kremlin unleashed its biggest air attack on Kyiv since the war began.
Blaming Ukraine for the attacks, Russian authorities said Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed on the attacks and the crime will not go unpunished. "The Kyiv regime is trying to divert attention from the defeats on the front lines and to provoke us into taking similar actions," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Moscow accused Ukraine of using multiple forms of weaponry, including Ukrainian Olkha and Czech-made Vampire rockets, to launch the attacks on Belgorod. It added that it has asked the Czech representative to attend the urgent meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in New York. The UNSC meeting was held on Saturday at Russia's request.
Russia’s ambassador Vasily Nebenzya claimed at the UN that the attack "a deliberate act of terrorism planned against civilians". Ukraine responded to Nebenzya's accusation with its representative to the US, Serhii Dvornyk, telling the UNSC that "the only way to stop human suffering is to stop the war itself."
Though Ukraine has not publicly commented on the incident, a Ukrainian security source responded to the accusations, stating that only military infrastructure had been targeted in Belgorod. The unnamed source told BBC News that over 70 drones had been launched against Russian targets as a "response to Russia's terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians".
They also blamed the "incompetent work of Russian air defence" for civilian casualties - saying this was what caused falling fragments.
On Friday, Russia carried out an 18-hour aerial bombardment across Ukraine killing at least 41 civilians. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said Saturday that the toll in the capital Kyiv rose to at least 16 after the bodies of more civilians were recovered from the rubble of a warehouse.
"The attack on the capital city on December 29 was the largest in terms of civilian casualties since the start of the full-scale invasion. Rescuers are working and will continue to clear the rubble until tomorrow," Klitschko said. "January 1 will be declared a Day of Mourning in Kyiv."
