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Russia peppers Ukraine with one of the biggest missile attacks since the invasion began

2022-12-29T15:14:49.188Z


Nearly 70 Russian missiles hit energy facilities on Thursday, plunging Ukrainians further into the bitter winter without heat or light. After more than 10 months of war, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a battle of attrition.


By Renata Brito and Hanna Arhirova -

The Associated Press

Several regions of Ukraine, including the capital kyiv, suffered a massive attack by Russian missiles on Thursday, the biggest wave of attacks in weeks on power plants and other critical infrastructure in the midst of a harsh winter where many Ukrainians have been left without heat.

Air raid sirens sounded across the country.

Ukrainian military chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said preliminary data showed that Russia had fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and that Ukrainian forces had shot down 54 of them.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities.

Russia sent explosive drones to selected regions overnight before expanding the barrage with "air and sea-based cruise missiles launched from strategic aircraft and ships" in the morning, the Ukrainian air force said.

[Russia threatens Ukraine with an ultimatum over the territories it illegally occupied]

The massive attack was the latest in a series of strikes by Russia against Ukraine's electricity and water supplies, adding to the suffering of the population there.

Moscow has launched such attacks on a weekly basis since October as its ground forces struggle to gain ground.

Rescuers remove rubble from homes destroyed by a missile attack on the outskirts of kyiv, on December 29, 2022, following a Russian missile attack on Ukraine.GENYA SAVILOV / AFP via Getty Images

On Thursday, air defense systems were activated in the Ukrainian capital to repel attacks, according to authorities.

Explosions were heard in the city.

At least three people were injured and hospitalized,

including a

14-year-old girl,

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The official warned of power cuts in the capital and asked citizens to store water and charge their electronic devices.

[Russia reports three dead after shooting down Ukrainian drone that flew over important Putin military base]

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned Russia for launching the missiles in the middle of the winter holidays, calling it an act of "senseless barbarism."

“There can be no 'neutrality' in the face of such massive war crimes.

Pretending to be 'neutral' is equivalent to siding with Russia,” Kuleba condemned on the social network Twitter.

war of attrition

After more than 10 months of fighting, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a bitter battle of attrition.

The Ukrainian military has recaptured swaths of Russian-occupied territory in the northeast and south of the country, and continues to resist persistent Russian attempts to seize the entire Donbas industrial region.

At the same time, Moscow has methodically attacked Ukrainian power plants and other key infrastructure in an attempt to weaken the country's resolve and force it to negotiate Putin's terms for ending the conflict.

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Although the Ukrainian military has managed to shoot down Russian missiles and explosive drones in previous strikes, some have hit their targets.

Most cities have been without heat, internet and electricity for hours or days.

Anastasia, a doctor who took refuge in a central kyiv metro station on Thursday and gave only her name, said she was tired of the war.

“We don't know how long the war will last.

It

's hard to be afraid every day and leave life on hold,"

she lamented.

There were also numerous explosions in Kharkiv, its city located in eastern Ukraine and the second largest in the country;

and in the city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, according to the mayors of those towns.

About 90% of Lviv was left without electricity, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram.

Trams and trolleybuses were not working, and residents could experience interruptions in their water supply, he said.

Ukrainian authorities in various regions claimed to have intercepted some Russian missiles.

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The governor of Mykolaiv province in southern Ukraine, Vitaliy Kim, said five missiles were shot down over the Black Sea.

The North Ukrainian military command declared that two of them were shot down over the Sumy region, located on the border with Russia, in the north-east of the country.

Fragments of downed Russian missiles

damaged two

private buildings in Kiev's Darnytskyi district, the city administration said.

An industrial facility and a children's playground in neighborhoods across the Dnieper River were also damaged, according to municipal authorities.

No casualties were immediately reported.

As the latest wave of Russian attacks began on Thursday, authorities in the Dnipro, Odessa and Kryvyi Rih regions said they had cut off power to minimize damage to critical infrastructure, should it be hit.

Distant prospects of peace talks

Earlier this month, the United States agreed to give Ukraine a battery of Patriot missiles to bolster the country's defense.

The United States and other allies also pledged to provide power equipment to help Ukraine resist attacks on its infrastructure.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia intended to "destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse."

“We are waiting for further proposals from the 'peacekeepers' on 'peaceful settlement', 'security guarantees for the RF' and the undesirability of provocations,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter, sarcastically referencing statements by some Westerners that They urged Ukraine to seek a political settlement of the conflict.

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Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said on Monday that his country wants a "peace" summit within two months at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator.

He said

Russia must face a war crimes tribunal

before his country talks directly with Moscow, but other nations should feel free to engage in talks with the Russians.

Commenting on the summit proposal on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it "delusional" and "hollow," describing the proposal as a "publicity stunt by Washington trying to present the kyiv regime like a peacemaker."

“It is an attempt to give a semblance of legitimacy to a pointless discussion that will not be followed by any concrete steps,” Zakharova said during a briefing.

Russian officials have said any peace plan can only start with kyiv's recognition of Russia's sovereignty over regions it illegally annexed from Ukraine in September.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-12-29

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