- A massive aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities by Russia has sent people rushing to shelters in what Ukrainian authorities described as “senseless barbarism”
Russia has fired scores of missiles into Ukraine, targeting Kyiv, the northeastern city of Kharkiv and other cities in a massive aerial bombardment that sent people rushing to shelters and knocked out power, Ukrainian authorities say.
In Kyiv, a team of emergency workers searched through the smouldering wreckage of a residential house destroyed by a blast, and footage showed the smoke trails of missiles lingering in the sky over the capital.
In Kharkiv, firefighters worked to extinguish a blaze at an electricity station.
“Senseless barbarism. These are the only words that come to mind seeing Russia launch another missile barrage at peaceful Ukrainian cities ahead of New Year,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted after the early morning barrage on Thursday.
This is as Belarus protested to Ukraine’s ambassador on Thursday after saying it had downed a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missiles in a field, during one of Russia’s heaviest aerial onslaughts against Ukraine since the start of the war in February.
The military commissar of the Brest region, Oleg Konovalov, played the incident down in a video posted on social media by the state-run BelTA news agency, saying locals had “absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, these things happen.”
He compared the incident to one in November, when an S-300 believed to have strayed after being fired by Ukrainian air defenses landed on the territory of NATO-member Poland, triggering fears of an escalation that were rapidly defused.
Ukraine’s military said it shot down 54 missiles out of 69 launched by Russia in an attack that began at 7 am local time.
Air raid sirens rang out across the country and in Kyiv sounded for five hours – in one of the longest alarms of the war.
“This morning, the aggressor launched air and sea-based cruise missiles, anti-aircraft guided missiles and S-300 ADMS at energy infrastructure facilities of our country,” wrote Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, on Telegram.
Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said the missiles were fired at “critical and energy infrastructure facilities in the eastern, central, western and southern regions.”
The strikes have resulted in “significant damage” to the national power grid, already battered by repeated bombardment, officials said.
“Unfortunately, due to significant network damage, it is difficult for us to deliver electricity in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Lviv regions,” said the head of Ukraine’s grid operator Ukrenergo, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi.
The attacks followed an overnight assault by ‘kamikaze’ drones. Russia has mounted numerous waves of air strikes in recent months on Ukrainian critical infrastructure, leaving millions without power and heat in freezing temperatures.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry in Minsk to receive a formal protest.
“The Belarussian side views this incident as extremely serious,” spokesperson Anatoly Glaz said.
“We demanded that the Ukrainian side conduct a thorough investigation… hold those responsible to account and take comprehensive measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.”
Ukraine’s defense ministry said it was ready to invite authoritative experts from countries that do not support “the terrorist state of Russia” to participate in an investigation of the incident, which it said resulted from the repulsion of a “barbaric” Russian missile attack that hit civilian targets.
“The Ukrainian side, reserving the unconditional right to the defense and protection of its own sky, at the same time is ready to conduct an objective investigation in Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said it did not rule out a “deliberate provocation” in which Russia launched its cruise missiles on a path where they would be intercepted over Belarusian territory.
A Ukrainian military spokesman also in effect acknowledged that the missile was a Ukrainian stray, saying the incident was “nothing strange, a result of air defense” and something that “has happened more than once.”
The S-300 is a Soviet-era air defense system used by both Russia and Ukraine.
Belarus said the missile had come down near the village of Harbacha in the Brest region, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Ukraine, at around 10 a.m. (0700 GMT).
“Fragments were found in an agricultural field… the wreckage belongs to an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile fired from the territory of Ukraine,” the Belarus defense ministry said.
The missile strayed as Russia was launching its latest wave of missile attacks on cities across Ukraine, in which the defense ministry said more than 18 residential buildings and 10 critical infrastructure targets in 10 regions were destroyed.
BelTA published photos and video of what it said were parts of an S-300 missile lying in an empty field.
Belarus allowed Moscow to use its territory in February to start the invasion of Ukraine, and there has been a growing flurry of Russian and Belarusian military activity in Belarus in recent months.
Minsk has, however, insisted that it is not participating in the war, and will not participate unless its own security is threatened by Ukraine or Ukraine’s Western allies.