Looking ahead to 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday that Ukraine is “preparing to produce more weapons next year.”
“We are working with our partners on solutions needed by every Ukrainian soldier, our entire nation, our state,” he said.
On the last day of the year, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 21 of 49 Russian drones.
Ukraine was also fighting back a Russian drone attack Saturday in Kyiv.
Two Russian missiles hit central Kharkiv on Saturday, injuring at least 21 people, Ukrainian officials said, in the latest in a recent series of back-and-forth air assaults.
Russia’s attacks on Kharkiv came after Ukrainian airstrikes earlier Saturday hit the Russian city of Belgorod, which sits just over the border with Ukraine.
“As a result of the night attack of Russian drones on Kharkiv, buildings in the city center were damaged. These are not military facilities, but cafes, residential buildings and offices,” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov posted on Telegram. “On the eve of the New Year, Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said at least 21 people, including three children, were killed and at least 110 injured in Saturday’s Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Russia requested a meeting Saturday of the U.N. Security Council on what it called Ukraine’s indiscriminate attacks on Belgorod and alleged Ukraine had used cluster bombs. It provided no additional information, and The Associated Press was unable to verify its claims.
“This crime will not go unpunished,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on social media.
Security Council meets
The United Nations Security Council met Friday at the request of Ukraine and three dozen other U.N. member states. Security Council members condemned Russia’s barrage.
Drone attacks on cities in western Russia have been common since May. Russian officials blame Ukraine, but officials in Kyiv rarely claim responsibility for any of the attacks.
“The terrorist attack in Belgorod will be the subject of proceedings in the U.N. Security Council. Russia has requested a meeting of the Security Council,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, according to the state-run RIA news agency.
No official comment was immediately available from Kyiv, but the Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine quoted unnamed sources as saying Ukrainian forces hit military targets in Belgorod in retaliation to the massive Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities Friday.
On Saturday, Russia said it downed 32 Ukrainian drones. In Moscow, officials said air defenses shot down drones over Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol and Kursk regions. In a statement, the Defense Ministry reported a number of casualties, including a child.
On Friday, Russia launched its biggest air assault since February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said Russia killed at least 41 civilians, wounded at least 160, and left an unknown number buried in the rubble across Ukraine in a barrage that included 158 missile and drone attacks.
Russian missile and drone strikes continued Saturday. Missiles hit in Kharkiv and in the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Chernihiv regions, killing three people. Ukraine reported shooting down Iranian-made Shahed drones in the Kherson, Khmelnytskyi and Mykolaiv regions.
After the massive bombardment Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “fighting for its life.”
“We will respond to Russian terrorists for every strike. Terror never gains in playing against people,” Zelenskyy said.
The British Defense Ministry said Saturday in its daily intelligence update on Ukraine that the daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine, dead and wounded, has risen by almost 300% per day, compared with last year. The increase in the number of casualties was reported to the British ministry by Ukraine.
The increase, the British ministry said, can be attributed to “the degradation of Russia’s forces and its transition to a lower quality, high quantity mass army since the ‘partial mobilization’ of reservists in September 2022.”
It would likely take Russia five to 10 years to rebuild its highly trained military units, the report said.
If casualties continue at the same rate, the British ministry said, Russia will have more than half a million personnel killed and wounded by 2025, after three years of war.
In comparison, the Soviet Union suffered 70,000 casualties in the nine-year Soviet Afghan War, the British ministry said.
Russia’s top diplomat in Poland says Moscow won’t provide any explanations about an unidentified object that briefly entered Poland’s airspace until there is proof that the alleged object was a Russian missile.
An unknown object traveled 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) into the country’s airspace from the direction of Ukraine before leaving minutes later and vanishing off radars, Poland’s defense forces said Friday. The head of the Polish armed forces, General Wiesław Kukuła, said “everything indicates” it was a Russian missile.
Poland’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires in Warsaw, Andrei Ordash, and demanded an explanation. Russia called Poland’s claims “unsubstantiated.”
“We will not give any explanations until we are presented with concrete evidence, because these accusations are unsubstantiated,” Ordash told RIA Novosti.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
