At least 22 people have died and a hundred have been injured in one of the worst bombings ordered by Russia on Ukraine. The rain of missiles and drones began at dawn. The first explosions sounded in the Kharkiv region, but they quickly spread to other regions and cities such as kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Odessa. “We have never seen so many 'reds' (targets) on our monitors,” said air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat, who expressed his surprise at the fact that Moscow has carried out a deployment in which it has not even dispensed with the hypersonic and lethal Kinzhal. »The enemy has dealt a massive blow with various means of air attack. In fact, everything was flying in the direction of our country.
The attack has continued until after 7:00 a.m. this Friday with such intensity that thousands of civilians have been able to see the missiles crossing the sky in the direction of kyiv. The devices have hit dozens of residential buildings, factories, communication centers and critical infrastructure, such as electrical installations. Four regions have been left in the dark.
At noon, the Government and city councils had thousands of firefighters, police and members of the emergency services mobilized, still fighting among the fires and rubble in the search for victims. Authorities have recommended that the population remain alert to remain or return to shelters. The list of missing persons remains open and the Government does not rule out that the number of deaths will increase due to the critical condition in which dozens of injured people were located. Rescuers suspect that there may be new bodies among the ruins of the buildings that have collapsed.
Image of one of the buildings devastated by the bombing.
EFE
The bombing has not respected anything or anyone. In Dnipro, a maternity hospital and a shopping center have been attacked, while in Odessa an impact on a school has killed one person and injured at least seven others. A metro station where hundreds of residents were taking refuge has also been hit by a projectile in kyiv. «The most massive attack from the air. “We will take revenge,” said the head of the air force, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleschuk.
The air force estimates that Moscow began the operation around three in the morning, mobilizing its TU-95MS and TU-22M3 strategic bombers, as well as a swarm of 35 kamicaze drones that it launched over western Ukraine. The few unmanned devices that have overcome the anti-aircraft defenses have crashed into different buildings, while the remains of the neutralized devices have left a trail of injuries. Poland has also detected the passage of an “unidentified flying object” from the other side of the border, which in a matter of minutes has disappeared from its radars.
According to the military's account, five of the Russian bombers arrived in the Kursk region after five in the morning in the direction of northern and central Ukraine while another eighteen planes “entered the launch line” at other points in the region. country an hour later to the surprise of the radar operators who monitor the airspace. The aircraft fired 98 cruise missiles at major cities.
At the same time, the Ukrainian defense has activated its anti-missile shield and put its meager air fleet on alert. Russia has ordered a second massive bombardment, in this case using artillery batteries located in Crimea, Kursk and Belgorod. Fourteen ballistic missiles have converged on Kharkiv, where authorities claim that the damage is “very extensive” and the death toll has not yet been finalized. The punishment operation ended around seven in the morning, after Ukraine detected the takeoff of five Russian MIG-31K fighters and a bomber from the Astrakhan region, which launched another dozen aeroballistic missiles.
![Firefighters fight the fire among the remains of a factory in Kharkiv.](https://s2.ppllstatics.com/rc/www/multimedia/2023/12/29/Clipboard-0113.jpg)
Firefighters fight the fire among the remains of a factory in Kharkiv.
EFE
President Volodymyr Zelensky has highlighted in an emergency broadcast that the Kremlin has used “almost all types of weapons in its arsenal” in this attack and has promised to respond to the offensive. «We will respond to terrorist attacks. And we will continue fighting for the security of our entire country, of each city and of each citizen. “Russian terror must lose and will lose,” said Zelensky, while his advisor Andriy Yermak has once again called on the United States and the European Union to overcome the stalemate on military packages and send weapons in large quantities. «We are doing everything possible to strengthen our air shield. But the world needs to see that we need more support and strength to stop this terrorism,” he stressed.
The violence of the Russian attack keeps Ukraine and allied countries baffled. The first hypothesis considered by the Kiev General Staff is that it is an act of revenge for the sinking this week of a warship in Crimea that, apparently, has unleashed the wrath of the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin. In fact, unconfirmed reports indicated this Thursday that the president had sent some of his senior military officials in Moscow to Crimea as punishment for the Ukrainian attack against the ship. Some communications from kyiv, also unconfirmed, reveal that the Russian Ministry of Defense has ordered the transfer of part of the units of the Black Sea Fleet to safer ports, after already withdrawing them from Sevastopol a few months ago.
Another version about this morning's bombing alludes to Moscow trying to deplete Ukraine's anti-aircraft reserves in the current precarious moment its Government is going through. It has suffered the refusal of the United States Senate to enable new allocations – the last one was exhausted this December – and faces the uncertainty of the extent to which its European partners are willing to contribute more money and weapons.
According to the General Staff in kyiv, this morning the defenses destroyed some 114 of the 158 projectiles and drones launched by Russia, which implies having fired numerous volleys of anti-aircraft missiles. The type of rocket that Russian aviation has launched the most, the KH model, has a very effective enemy to counter it in the American Patriot, and there are less and less of this in the warehouses of the Ukrainian air shield.
![Damage to a building in kyiv.](https://s1.ppllstatics.com/rc/www/multimedia/2023/12/29/Clipboard-0117.jpg)
Damage to a building in kyiv.
EFE
Whatever the version that explains this aggression, there is a very clear conclusion: the Kremlin has indulged in devastating punishment operations regardless of the cost. A quick study carried out by weapons experts affirms that Russia has spent at least 1,273 million dollars on this Thursday's attack, an unprecedented amount for a country that is supposedly in crisis after more than two years of war.
Each of the five Kinzhal missiles the military has deployed alone costs $10 million. Nor has it saved on the Iskander, a very precise cruise missile that can be fired from 300 or 500 kilometers away that the Russians usually use in places where there are more risks for their bombers. This morning he threw at least fourteen. And each one represents three million euros. For some experts, this fact is bad news, since it would confirm that Russia is well nourished by artillery and has generated an effective defense and weapons manufacturing industry.
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