War in Ukraine: Russian strikes on kyiv, Vladimir Putin claims "moral correctness"
People outside a bombed-out hotel in kyiv, Ukraine, on December 31.
AP - Efrem Lukatsky
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Several Ukrainian cities, including the capital kyiv, were targeted by Russian strikes on Saturday December 31.
These left at least one dead and around thirty injured, at a time when Vladimir Putin claimed, in his New Year's greetings, to have "
moral correctness
" on his side.
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In Kyiv, AFP journalists heard at least 11 explosions early Saturday afternoon as the city prepared to celebrate the New Year, despite more than a decade of fierce fighting at the front since the invasion of the country by Russia launched in February.
►Also read: Ukraine: the heart is not at the party before New Year's Eve
According to the city administration, these strikes left at least one dead and 21 injured.
They tore open the facade of the four-star Alfavito hotel in the center, spreading rubble in the street.
Nearby sidewalks were covered in glass from blown windows, including those in the National Palace of the Arts.
The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, announced that 30% of the inhabitants of the city were deprived of electricity after these strikes.
cruise missile
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian strikes caused destruction and fires in Mykolaiv in the south, where at least six people were injured, and in Khmelnytsky in the west, where four people were injured.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, accused Moscow of deliberately targeting residential areas.
"
War criminal Putin 'celebrates' New Year by killing people
," he wrote on Twitter.
This time, Russia's mass missile attack is deliberately targeting residential areas, not even our energy infrastructure.
War criminal Putin “celebrates” New Year by killing people.
Russia must be kicked out of its UN Security Council seat which it has always illegally occupied.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) December 31, 2022
According to Ukrainian Chief of Staff Valery Zalouzhny, Russian forces fired 20 cruise missiles, including from strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea, 12 of which were shot down by anti-aircraft defense.
After several military setbacks on the front, Russia has opted since October for a tactic of
bombing
Ukrainian infrastructure, which regularly causes massive cuts in electricity and running water.
Almost at the same time as these strikes, Russian television in the Far East was broadcasting Vladimir Putin's New Year's speech, given the difference in time zones with Moscow.
Ukraine “
will not forgive
” Russia
Standing alongside soldiers who fought in Ukraine and whom he had just decorated in an army headquarters in southern Russia, the Russian president assured that “
moral and historical correctness
” was “
on the side
” from his country.
“
This is what we are fighting for today, protecting our people in our own historical territories, in the new constituent entities of Russia
,” he said.
Russia claimed in September the annexation of four Ukrainian territories that it controls at least partially, on the pattern of that of the Crimean peninsula in March 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that his country "
will not forgive
to Russia the invasion and the bombardments.
“
No one will forgive you for terror.
No one in the world will forgive you.
Ukraine will not forgive
," he wrote in Russian on Telegram, assuring that "
those who order such strikes, and those who carry them out, will not be pardoned, that's the least we can do. say
”.
(
With
AFP)
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Ukraine
Russia
Vladimir Poutine
Volodymyr Zelensky