Putin says Russia will ‘intensify’ attacks on Ukraine
Published: 05:01 PM,Jan 01,2024 | EDITED : 09:01 PM,Jan 01,2024
Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with servicemen wounded in Ukraine while visiting the Central Vishnevsky Military Clinic in Moscow. — AFP
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Moscow will intensify strikes on military targets in Ukraine after an unprecedented attack over the weekend on the Russian city of Belgorod.
The attack killed 24 people and left over 100 wounded in Belgorod on Saturday. It came after Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukrainian cities.
“We’re going to intensify the strikes, no crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said on Monday during a visit to a military hospital.
He said Russia will press on with hitting what he called “military installations.”
“We are doing that today, and tomorrow we will continue doing it,” Putin said, almost two years into Moscow’s offensive.
He spoke as Ukraine said Russia had hit it with a “record” number of drones on New Year’s Day.
Putin accused Ukrainian forces of targeting “right in the city centre, where people were walking, before New Year’s Eve.”
He repeated a claim that Ukraine is being used by the West to “settle its problems” with Russia.
The Russian leader said he believed the “strategic initiative” in the dragging conflict was on the Russian side.
“In any case that is how I am being briefed and I always insist: any offensive operations should be done after a defeat of the enemy,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said on Monday it had foiled a “record” number of Russian drones on the night of New Year’s Eve after a week of escalation in the nearly two-year conflict.
Kyiv also said Russian shelling killed one person on New Year’s Day in the southern Odesa region and another person in Kherson, also in the south.
The barrage came after Russia pounded Ukraine in the last days of 2023, killing 39 people in one of the biggest strikes in the war.
“On New Year’s Eve, the defenders of the sky managed to destroy a record number of enemy attack drones -- 87 out of 90,” the air force said.
It said Moscow also launched missiles in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Odesa was shelled on New Year’s Eve, Kyiv said, with emergency services reporting one person killed. A 73-year-old woman was killed in Kherson in shelling.
The drone attacks also targeted the western city of Lviv near the Polish border.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said a university linked to a Ukrainian nationalist figure and a museum were damaged.
— AFP
The attack killed 24 people and left over 100 wounded in Belgorod on Saturday. It came after Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukrainian cities.
“We’re going to intensify the strikes, no crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said on Monday during a visit to a military hospital.
He said Russia will press on with hitting what he called “military installations.”
“We are doing that today, and tomorrow we will continue doing it,” Putin said, almost two years into Moscow’s offensive.
He spoke as Ukraine said Russia had hit it with a “record” number of drones on New Year’s Day.
Putin accused Ukrainian forces of targeting “right in the city centre, where people were walking, before New Year’s Eve.”
He repeated a claim that Ukraine is being used by the West to “settle its problems” with Russia.
The Russian leader said he believed the “strategic initiative” in the dragging conflict was on the Russian side.
“In any case that is how I am being briefed and I always insist: any offensive operations should be done after a defeat of the enemy,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said on Monday it had foiled a “record” number of Russian drones on the night of New Year’s Eve after a week of escalation in the nearly two-year conflict.
Kyiv also said Russian shelling killed one person on New Year’s Day in the southern Odesa region and another person in Kherson, also in the south.
The barrage came after Russia pounded Ukraine in the last days of 2023, killing 39 people in one of the biggest strikes in the war.
“On New Year’s Eve, the defenders of the sky managed to destroy a record number of enemy attack drones -- 87 out of 90,” the air force said.
It said Moscow also launched missiles in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
Odesa was shelled on New Year’s Eve, Kyiv said, with emergency services reporting one person killed. A 73-year-old woman was killed in Kherson in shelling.
The drone attacks also targeted the western city of Lviv near the Polish border.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy said a university linked to a Ukrainian nationalist figure and a museum were damaged.
— AFP