Russia pounded Ukraine's capital Kyiv and Kharkiv areas with heavy missile attacks on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to avenge a suspected Ukrainian attack in Belgorod that killed 24, as claimed by Moscow. Russia unleashed its attack on Kyiv with a barrage of missiles in the early hours of Tuesday that killed two civilians, wounded dozens and cut off power in parts of the city.
"Explosions in the capital," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram app, after Ukraine's air force said that it managed to destroy all 35 attack drones that Russia launched after midnight targeting several cities in Ukraine, including Kyiv.
Klitschko said that gas pipelines were damaged in Kyiv's Pecherskyi district and electricity was cut off in several buildings of the capital. The city of Kharkiv was also under a "massive missile attack", according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. This came after Russia's largest aerial attack on several parts of the country - a barrage of 122 missiles and 36 drones - on Friday that killed at least 39 people.
Putin vows revenge after Ukraine attack
At least 24 people were killed in a retaliatory Ukrainian attack in Russia's Belgorod on Saturday. More than 110 people were wounded in the strike, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, making it one of the deadliest attacks on Russian soil since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 22 months ago.
Russian authorities accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack, which took place the day after an 18-hour aerial bombardment across Ukraine killed at least 39 civilians. Putin called it "a terrorist act" that would not go unpunished and promised more strikes on Ukrainian targets.
Putin said that Russia would continue to strike "sensitive" military targets in Ukraine. Russia denies Western and Ukrainian accusations that it targets civilian infrastructure. Russian diplomats also called for a meeting of the UN Security Council in connection with the strike.
In a wide-ranging conversation with the servicemen, the Russian President said that the course of the war in Ukraine was changing in Russia's favour, and that Moscow hoped to end the war, but only on its own terms.
Russia suffering heavy losses: Zelenskyy
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces are suffering heavy losses in the nearly two-year-long war and the notion of Moscow winning the conflict is only a "feeling" not based on reality.
"Thousands, thousands of killed Russian soldiers, nobody even took them away," he said in an interview, without providing any evidence to back his assertion. However, Western military analysts have agreed that Russia is paying a heavy price in men and equipment for relatively minor gains in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Russian officials have said that Western estimates of Russian death tolls are vastly exaggerated and almost always underestimate Ukrainian losses. Putin had said in December that Russia's position was improving and it would not stop what he calls the "special military operation" until its objectives, including Ukraine's "denazification, demilitarisation and its neutral status", have been achieved.
Zelenskiy acknowledged that the counteroffensive backed by advanced Western weapons may not have succeeded "as the world wanted. Maybe not everything is as fast as someone imagined."
(with inputs from Reuters)
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