Russia marked the new year with the launch of a record 90 Shahed-type drones over Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin vowed to further intensify attacks after a Ukrainian strike on the south Russian city of Belgorod.
Ukraine said it had intercepted 87 of the drones, but a 15-year-old boy was killed and seven people wounded by falling debris from one of the downed aircraft in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, according to the head of the region’s military administration, Oleh Kiper.
Writing on social media, the Lviv mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, described the strike as “symbolic and cynical”, adding “this is a war for our history”.
The Belgorod attack followed an 18-hour series of Russian airstrikes beginning on Friday that killed 49 people, which Ukrainian officials described as the biggest aerial barrage of the war.
He added Moscow wanted to end the conflict, which the UN estimates has killed more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians since February 2022, “as quickly as possible” but “only on our terms”.
One person was also killed and another wounded in shelling on the Russian border town of Shebekino, the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
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