Russia launched an attack on the Ukrainian capital kyiv on Friday, December 20, 2024, in response to the Ukrainian attack on the Russian region of Rostov this week, for which missiles supplied by the United States and the United Kingdom were used according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russia fired ballistic missiles at kyiv on the morning of Friday, December 20, killing one person, injuring around ten others and damaging several embassies in an attack carried out, according to Moscow, “in response” to a Ukrainian strike against a Russian chemical plant.
“One person was killed, 12 were injured” including five hospitalized, according to the latest report from the military administration of the Ukrainian capital.
Six diplomatic missions damaged
Six diplomatic missions located in the same building were damaged: those of Albania, Argentina, the Palestinian Authority, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro, Ukrainian diplomacy indicated, denouncing a ” barbaric attack.
“A new heinous attack against kyiv. This time against a building housing the Portuguese embassy and other diplomatic services,” denounced the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on X.
The Portuguese government also condemned the attack “vehemently” in a statement and summoned the Russian charge d’affaires.
kyiv, which had more than three million inhabitants before the Russian invasion launched in February 2022, is regularly targeted by missiles and explosive drones but significant damage is rather rare, especially in the center, the city being relatively well protected by anti-aircraft defense.
The Russian attack was carried out using five “Iskander-M/KN-23” type ballistic missiles, all of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
The Russian army, for its part, said it attacked kyiv “in response” to a strike carried out by Ukraine on Wednesday with Western missiles against a Russian factory.
“Duel”
“A group strike was carried out […] against the control center (of the Ukrainian special services) SBU, the Lutch design bureau, based in kyiv, which designs and manufactures Neptune missile systems,” the Russian army said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed that Moscow will respond to all Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil carried out using Western missiles, even threatening to relaunch its new “Orechnik” missile.
“You know that such strikes on Russian territory have been carried out, and you know that the president said that there would be a response every time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
This attack on kyiv came after an exchange of barbs between the master of the Kremlin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vladimir Putin proposed Thursday during his major annual press conference a “duel” between his “Orechnik” missile, which he suggested firing at the Ukrainian capital, and Western anti-aircraft defense means.
“We are organizing such an experiment, such a high-tech duel, and we will see what will happen. It’s interesting,” he said.
“People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’… Asshole”
“People are dying, and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’… Asshole,” President Zelensky fumed on X.
AFP journalists in kyiv heard a series of explosions around 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), then saw smoke rising above several locations.
Missile “debris” fell on three neighborhoods in kyiv, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. In particular, they caused a heating cut for several hours in more than 600 residential buildings, health establishments and schools in temperatures close to zero, he lamented.
The worst-hit area is in an affluent central neighborhood where the roof of a luxury office building was partially destroyed.
Charred carcasses were visible nearby. Residential buildings, a hotel, a Catholic church and a university were also damaged.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had struck a command center belonging to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), a Patriot anti-aircraft missile system manufactured by the United States as well as the Luch design bureau in kyiv, suspected of being involved in the design and manufacture of missiles.
“The objectives of the strike were achieved. All targets were hit,” the ministry said.
Reuters was unable to verify this information.
Russians “should burn in hell!”
“All the missiles were successfully intercepted, but one of the warheads could not be destroyed, exploding near the office building,” said a Ukrainian analysis center, Defense Express.
Ukraine used the powerful American Patriot system to shoot down the projectiles, according to a Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson.
Viktoria, a doctor who lives in the affected neighborhood, rushed to the bomb shelter of her building after the army warned of an imminent strike.
“Even in the shelter, bricks fell on my head. It’s just horrible when people start running from the street,” she told AFP, claiming that the Russians “should burn in hell !”
The Russian army also bombed Kherson, a large city in the south of the country, at dawn. At least two people were killed and 10 injured in this strike which hit “essential” infrastructure, depriving “up to 60,000” homes of electricity, according to regional authorities.
In eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has been advancing rapidly in recent months, it announced Friday that it had captured two small villages near the key town of Pokrovsk.
