Tit-for-tat aerial strikes escalate
Russia has launched nearly 300 missiles and more than 200 drones against Ukraine
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Russia has launched nearly 300 missiles and more than 200 drones against Ukraine
Crimea and two Russian regions neighboring Ukraine saw another wave of attacks on Wednesday, local officials said, a day after Kyiv was hit by massive bombardment and amid intensifying aerial attacks on both sides.
"The situation in Belgorod continues to be tense. There were two attacks in the morning," the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russian air defense said it destroyed six missiles over the Belgorod region, which has been repeatedly struck throughout the conflict.
One person was killed and eleven injured the day before, Gladkov said.
An aerial attack damaged infrastructures and caused power cuts in the Kursk region, to the north of Belgorod, its governor Roman Starovoyt said on Telegram.
And another missile was downed near Sevastopol in the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, the city's governor said, with no reported damage.
The attacks follow deadly Russian strikes on residential buildings in Ukraine on Tuesday.
The bombardment of mainly Kyiv and northeastern Kharkiv came less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to step up strikes following an unprecedented Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Belgorod.
In total, five people were killed and 130 wounded, Ukranian authorities said.
In Kyiv, a building near the center of the city was partly destroyed. Two people were killed and 49 were injured in the capital, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
Ukraine interior minister Igor Klymenko said another two people were killed in the Kyiv region.
A 91-year-old woman was killed and 52 people were injured as at least four strikes hit the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the head of the city's military administration, Oleg Sinegubov, said.
The cities of Orikhiv and Nikopol were also targeted by strikes that left three people wounded overall, authorities said.
Since 29 December, Russia has launched nearly 300 missiles and more than 200 drones against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Moscow claimed to have struck only military installations, but Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Russia was deliberately hitting critical infrastructure and residential neighborhoods.
Kyiv urged Western allies to respond to the bombardment by speeding up the delivery of air defense equipment, combat drones and long-range missiles at a time when allied backing has wavered.
Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said late Tuesday he had discussed the attacks with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
"We agreed on the importance of strengthening Ukrainian air defense," he said.
Kyiv said Moscow fired 99 missiles on Tuesday but 72 were downed, while Russia said it had shot down nine Ukrainian missiles over the Belgorod region.
Tuesday's attacks came after an escalation of the war in recent days, with Russia launching on 29 December a wave of strikes across Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, that killed 39 people.
Moscow also hit Ukrainian cities on New Year's Eve, with Kyiv saying it had foiled a "record" number of drones launched by Russia.
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