Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv under missile attack, Ukraine military says, after Putin vows to intensify strikes | Russia

The Associated Press says that at least two people were killed after the Russian attacks on Kharkiv and Kyiv, quoting officials.

As we reported earlier, Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, said one person died and 41 were injured in at least six strikes that hit the centre of Kharkiv and other areas.

In Kyiv, the capital, five areas of the city were hit in strikes that killed an older woman and injured at least 27 people, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has condemned the “massive Russian attack” on Kyiv and Kharkiv after the country’s two largest cities came under heavy ballistic missile bombardments.

She wrote on X:

The massive Russian attack on Kyiv and Kharkiv means dozens of injured civilians, residential buildings on fire. Unfortunately, we have casualties.

Speaking of war fatigue, it is worth remembering: the enemy is not tired of killing every day. Only force will stop him.

In the Pechersk district of Kyiv, debris hit the roof of a nine-storey building and another multi-storey building, the military administration said.

Fires also broke out in a supermarket and a warehouse, the mayor said.

During the night, fragments of ballistic missiles fell on apartment buildings in Kyiv, interrupting water and electricity supplies in some areas, Gyunduz Mamedov, a former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine, wrote on X.

The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has an update on a building where 117 residents were evacuated: at least 20 were injured.

He added that there was fire and heavy smoke in the building.

Kira Rudik, a member of Ukrainian parliament, said her home was “partially in rubble” and she had sustained minor injuries.

Poland said F-16 fighter jets and an allied air tanker were put into action today to protect Polish airspace amid Russia’s strikes on Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Forty-one people were injured in Kharkiv as a result of Russia’s attack this morning, according to Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor.

One woman was killed, he said in the Telegram post.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, the chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on European integration, cautioned on social media that “it’s probably the biggest attack” on Kyiv and Ukraine “as a whole since the start of full-scale invasion”.

“Urgent action in providing additional air defence capabilities needed. However, this war won’t be over till RU is defeated. Time to agree on this common goal – evil must be destroyed,” she added.

The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said in a Telegram post that 16 people had been injured in a building that caught fire after a Russian rocket attack. Fifteen of those injured had been hospitalised, he said.

Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, shared alerts received over the past days in the capital. “Out New Year in Kyiv was spent in air raids and bomb shelters,” she said.

The U.S. ambassador in Kyiv, Bridget A. Brink, has reacted to Russia’s attacks targeting Kyiv and other parts of the country.

Putin is ringing in 2024 by launching missiles at Kyiv and around the country as millions of Ukrainians again take shelter in freezing temps. Loud explosions in Kyiv this morning. It’s urgent and critical that we support Ukraine now – to stop Putin here.

The attacks on Kyiv early Tuesday came after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Monday that Ukraine’s strikes on Belgorod “will not go unpunished.”

Local officials said the strike killed 25 people including five children. It followed Moscow’s large-scale attack on Ukrainian cities on Friday, which killed more than 40 people and injured 160.

“We’re going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said on Monday during a visit to a military hospital. Read more here.

More detail is emerging about the Russian missile attack on Kyiv – at least 10 people were wounded, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Here are some recent images of the conflict:

Russia launched a total of 35 attack drones at Ukraine in the early hours of Monday, Ukraine’s air force said, with air defence systems destroying all of them.

Downed drone debris sparked a fire at a residential building in one of Kyiv’s districts following a drone attack the capital, Ukrainian officials said.

The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on the Telegram messaging app that the loud explosions heard in the city were the work of air defence systems engaged in repelling the attack. Falling drone debris caused a fire in Desnianskyi, he said. The district, on the east bank of the Dnipro River, is Kyiv’s most populous.

Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said emergency services were also dispatched to Holosiivskyi district along the west bank of the Dnipro. There were no immediate reports of casualties, Popko said on Telegram.

Loud explosions in Kyiv

Summary