Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin ‘boiling with rage’ after Kyiv attack as he vows to ‘intensify strikes’

President Vladimir Putin said he is “boiling with rage” and has vowed to intensify strikes after accusing Ukraine of launching deadly attacks.

Speaking during a New Year’s Day visit to a military hospital, Mr Putin said Ukraine can expect more strikes after shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod which killed more than two dozen people on Saturday.

“They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country. We will intensify strikes. Not a single crime against our civilian population will go unpunished,” the Russian leader said, describing the barrage of Belgorod as a “terrorist act”.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for Saturday’s attack, which was one of the deadliest to take place on Russian soil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started more than 22 months ago.

Russian officials in the occupied city of Donetsk also accused Kyiv of shelling the city in the early hours of New Year’s Day, killing four people.

While vowing retribution, he insisted Russia will only target military infrastructure in Ukraine.

“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.”

Russian courts have sentenced more than 200 Ukrainian fighters to prison terms since Moscow started its military operation in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

In an interview with the state RIA news agency published on Sunday, he said: “The courts of the Russian Federation have already sentenced more than 200 representatives of Ukrainian armed formations to long terms of imprisonment for committing atrocities.”

Both sides accuse each other of committing numerous atrocities in the war that Russia started with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Lavrov told RIA that Russia’s main investigative organ, the Investigative Committee, has initiated 4,000 criminal cases against about 900 Ukrainian individuals.

“They include not only members of radical nationalist associations, representatives of Ukrainian security forces and mercenaries, but also representatives of the military and political leadership of Ukraine,” Lavrov said.

Ukrainian President Zelensky said his first call of the New Year was to Canada’s Justin Trudeau today.

Mr Zelensky said the two world leaders discussed security and Russia’s most recent missile and drone attacks on Ukraine.

He wrote on X: “I am also grateful for the reassurance that Canada’s support for Ukraine will continue this year, both in terms of military and financial assistance.”

Speaking during a New Year’s Day visit to a military hospital, Putin said Ukraine could expect more such strikes after shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod that killed more than two dozen people and wounded more than 100 others.

“They want to intimidate us and create uncertainty within our country. We will intensify strikes. Not a single crime against our civilian population will go unpunished,” the Russian leader said, describing the barrage of Belgorod as a “terrorist act.”

Russia has blamed Ukraine for Saturday’s attack, which was one of the deadliest to take place on Russian soil since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started more than 22 months ago. Russian officials said the death toll stood at 25 as of Monday, including five children.

Ukraine’s shelling of the city of Donetsk on Monday killed four people, a Russian-installed official in the eastern region of Ukraine said, while Russia’s air attacks on several Ukrainian regions killed at least one person, local officials said.

Thirteen people were also injured in “heavy shelling” by Ukrainian forces on the centre of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the shelling of Donetsk a “terrorist act” that it said was aimed at civilian infrastructure.

Separately, a person was killed by shelling in the Russian border region of Belgorod, the local governor said on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that a series of Ukrainian missile strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod that killed 20 people and wounded 111 was “a terrorist act” that would not go unpunished and promised more strikes on Ukrainian targets.

Speaking at a meeting with servicemen at a military hospital in Moscow, Putin said that the strikes, which came amid intensified Russian air assaults against Ukrainian cities Kyiv and Kharkiv, “will not go unpunished”.

Putin said that Russia would continue to strike “sensitive” military targets in Ukraine. Russia denies Western and Ukrainian accusations that it targets civilian infrastructure.

The year draws to a close with yet another bitter reminder of how the international community could have done more to assist Ukraine against Russia, but chose not to.

Threats to shipping in the Red Sea have triggered a strong and immediate international military response to protect commerce there – a galling sight for supporters of Ukraine after the international community’s refusal to do the same in the Black Sea to relieve Russia’s stranglehold on Ukrainian grain exports.

International resolve is what has set the conditions for Ukraine’s continued struggle for survival in 2024. There won’t be the same hopes for a major Ukrainian breakthrough as there were in early 2023.

Read the full article from Keir Giles here

Four people were killed and 13 others wounded in Ukrainian shelling on Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk, according to the area’s Russian-installed leader, Denis Pushilin.

Russian state media reported that a journalist was among the victims, but provided no further details.

One person was also killed and another wounded in shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

The aerial strikes follow a series of heavy aerial bombardments that began on Friday, when Russia unleashed an 18-hour attack that one air force official described as the biggest aerial barrage of the war.

In the western city of Lviv, Russian attacks severely damaged a museum dedicated to Roman Shukhevych, a controversial Ukrainian nationalist and military commander who fought for Ukrainian independence during the Second World War.

University buildings in the town of Dubliany were also damaged, although no casualties were reported.

Writing on social media, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi described the strike as “symbolic and cynical”, adding: “This is a war for our history.”