Published January 2, 2024
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s two largest cities came under attack from Russian hypersonic ballistic missiles on Tuesday morning, killing at least four people and injuring almost 100, officials said, as the war approached its two-year milestone and the Kremlin’s forces stepped up their winter bombardment of urban areas.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that four civilians were killed and 92 injured in the capital, Kyiv, and in northeastern Kharkiv as hypersonic Kinzhal missiles that can fly at 10 times the speed of sound slammed into city blocks.
Russia fired almost 100 missiles of various types, Zelenskyy said on X, formerly Twitter. He claimed that at least 70 missiles were shot down, almost all of them in the Kyiv area, and said Western-supplied air defense systems such as Patriots and NASAMS had saved hundreds of lives.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had launched missile and drone strikes on military industrial facilities in and around Kyiv. Depots storing missiles and munitions supplied by Ukraine’s Western allies were also targeted, it said.
“The goal of the strike has been achieved, all the targets have been hit,” it said without elaborating. It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
Fire and burnt-out cars are seen after a missile strike in Kyiv on January 2,2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP) (Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Since Sunday, Zelenskyy said, Russian forces have launched about 170 Shahed drones and “dozens of missiles of various types” in an onslaught against Ukrainian targets. Most were aimed at civilian areas, he said.
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is an air-launched hypersonic ballistic missile. Russian forces rarely use such expensive missiles against Ukraine due to their limited stocks.
The attacks created a desolate morning scene in the capital, with most cafes and restaurants remaining closed. Many people opted to stay indoors or seek refuge in shelters as powerful explosions shook the city from early morning.
Air raid sirens blared for nearly four hours, and the city’s subway stations – which function as shelters – were crowded.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Terrifying moment missile explodes in Ukraine as Putin launches huge blitzkrieg including a record 11 hypersonic Dagger missiles – while his bungling troops also annihilate a RUSSIAN village
- A super-fast missile exploded close to the Derzhprom building in Kharkiv
Published January 2, 2024
This is the terrifying moment a missile exploded in Ukraine as Putin launched a monumental attack today, including a record 11 hypersonic Dagger missiles simultaneously.
Strikes hit Kyiv and other cities as Putin showed his wrath at Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod on New Year’s Eve.
Footage shows a super-fast missile exploding close to the Derzhprom building on Freedom Square in Kharkiv, the Soviet Union’s first skyscraper.
Sirens can he heard in the background as flames are seen engulfing a woodland area before the huge explosion shakes the entire scene.
Just a day earlier Putin said he did not aim at city squares but only military targets.
‘Of course, we can hit public squares in Kyiv and in any other Ukrainian city,’ he said. ‘I understand – I’m boiling with rage – but do we need to hit civilians? No.
‘We are hitting military targets, and that’s what we will keep doing.’
It comes as Putin accidentally bombed a Russian village after it bungled an airstrike intended to cause carnage in Ukraine.
The blitz allegedly damaged six private houses within the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region this morning.
It is not the first time such incidents have occured during Moscow‘s almost two-year-long Ukraine offensive – with a Russian army warplane accidentally dropping a bomb on its own city of Belgorod, near the Ukraine border, in April last year.
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: Zelensky Vows Russia Will Feel ‘Wrath’ of Ukraine With Arrival of Western F-16 Fighter Jets in New Year
Published January 1, 2024
In a defiant New Year’s address, President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Russia would feel the “wrath” of Ukrainian weapons production, including a million new attack drones, and the expected arrival of F-16 fighter jets from the West in the coming year.
Speaking from Kyiv on Sunday evening, Zelensky proclaimed that “Ukraine is alive. Ukraine lives. Ukraine fights” while thanking the efforts of the hundreds of thousands of men fighting on the frontlines and the civilian population for their contributions to the war effort and “holding back the evil that has become even greater.”
“I want to thank all our people, our strong nation. Everyone who is here today. Everyone whom I want to tell: I am proud of all of you. Every Ukrainian citizen. Every strong person. And I know how difficult it is for everyone today. Everyone who has put their lives on hold. Who postponed everything for after the victory,” he said according to state media Ukrinform.
“And to this end, today we have to live by the rule: you either work or you fight. Because we have the world’s largest terrorist organization against us. And it is obvious how much more we have to do, how much more active we have to be, how much stronger our unity and struggle have to be.”
Despite the much-anticipated “Spring counteroffensive” — which in reality only began in earnest by the summer — failing to recapture any significant territory occupied by the heavily entrenched Russian forces, Zelensky vowed to continue the fight and to liberate “Crimea, Donbas, Luhansk region, Berdyansk, Melitopol, Mariupol” from Russian control.
The embattled leader pointed to increased weapons production in Ukraine, notably the production of a million new attack drones, and the expected delivery of American-made F-16 fighter jets over the next year as a source of optimism and a potential turning point for his depleted forces.
“Next year, the enemy will feel the wrath of domestic production,” Zelensky warned. “Our weapons, our equipment, artillery, our shells, our drones, our naval ‘greetings’ to the enemy and at least a million Ukrainian FPV drones. All of which we will generously use. On land, in the sky and, of course, at sea. Our Black Sea.”
“I thank all our partners for the fact that this year we already have Patriots, IRIS-T, HIMARS, NASAMS, Hawk, Abrams, Leopards and many more. And our pilots are already mastering F-16 jets, and we will definitely see them in our skies. So that our enemies can certainly see what our real wrath is,” he added.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
