Ukraine strike kills 5 in Kursk after Russia claims deadly Kyiv attack
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Rescuers work at the site of a Russian drone strike at a warehouse building in the Kyiv region on Dec 20.
PHOTO: AFP
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KYIV – Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of launching deadly missile strikes, with Moscow saying at least five were killed by such a strike on its Kursk border region after a dawn attack on Ukraine’s capital killed one man.
Ukraine struck the small town of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region, killing five people and wounding 12
Mr Khinshtein accused Kyiv of firing US-supplied Himars rockets at civilian targets, saying the strike damaged buildings, including a school and the dormitory of a pilot training college.
Videos on social media showed cars on fire, debris strewn on roads, and buildings with windows blown out.
The border region is partly occupied by Ukrainian forces.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Tass state news agency that Moscow would raise the attack at a UN Security Council meeting.
Russia accused Ukraine in 2023 of using cluster munitions to attack the town of around 15,000 residents located around 30km from the border.
The attack came hours after Russian missiles hit central Kyiv early on Dec 20, killing at least one person and damaging embassies.
Moscow claimed the dawn attack
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched five Iskander missiles on Kyiv, all of which it managed to shoot down, but falling debris damaged several districts.
‘Explosions after explosions’
Russian aerial attacks regularly target Kyiv but rarely cause significant damage as the capital is well protected by air defence, nearly three years into Russia’s invasion.
“There were explosions after explosions in a row,” said 45-year-old Ksenia, who was staying at a hotel near the site of the wreckage.
The strikes killed a 53-year-old man and wounded 13 people, most suffering from shrapnel injuries, city officials said.
They also damaged a building housing the embassies of Argentina, Palestine, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro, and Albania’s diplomatic mission, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
“Another heinous Russian attack against Kyiv,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen posted on social media platform X. “(Russian leader Vladimir) Putin’s disregard for international law reaches new heights.”
In the absence of the Russian ambassador in Lisbon, the charge d’affaires of the Russian Federation has been summoned to be presented with a formal protest, the Portuguese government said.
“These are barbaric attacks on diplomatic institutions. This is crossing all possible red lines and international rules,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy was quoted as saying by Interfax.
The Kyiv National Linguistics University said on its Instagram account that its building was also hit.
Victoria, a 35-year-old doctor, came out to look at the charred cars and buildings with blown-out windows at the site of an attack.
“Russians should burn in hell,” she said.
Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said Ukrainian Patriot air-defence systems were deployed to shoot down the missiles.
Responders inspecting the damage at the site of a missile strike in downtown Kyiv on Dec 20.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
More strikes
Moscow claimed responsibility for the overnight attack on Ukraine, carried out a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to strike Kyiv.
“You know that such strikes on Russian territory have been carried out, and you know that the President has said that every time there will be a response,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The Russian Defence Ministry announced “a combined strike with long-range precision weapons” in response to Ukraine’s earlier attack.
The ministry said it targeted an office of the SBU security service and a defence industry site.
“All the targets have been struck,” it added.
Mr Putin, at a news conference on Dec 19, suggested a “high-tech duel” over Kyiv to test his claims that Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik, is impervious to air defences.
“Let them set some target to be hit, let’s say in Kyiv,” he said.
“They will concentrate there all their air defences, and we will launch an Oreshnik strike there and see what happens.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit back, saying: “People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called out Mr Vladimir Putin after Russia’s leader ordered more strikes on Kyiv.
PHOTO: AFP
Russian attacks also killed two people in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Dec 20.
“Today, Kherson woke up from numerous strikes of the Russian army. The occupants have created hell in the city,” Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Mr Prokudin also said shelling cut power to 60,000 homes in the region, under daily strikes since Ukraine liberated the city in November 2022.
Russian forces have been pushed back to the other side of the Dnipro river, but the city of Kherson is within range of Russian artillery.
Southern Defence Forces spokesman Vladyslav Voloshyn told state-run Suspilne media outlet that a Russian sabotage group tried but failed to cross the Dnipro during the shelling.
Russian troops are on the offensive again, especially in the eastern Donbas region, where this week they captured two small villages near the city of Pokrovsk. AFP
