Russia's Fresh Drone Assault on Ukraine Leaves Dozens Dead and Injured

Russia launched a fresh drone assault on Ukraine after promising that strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod that killed 24 people Saturday “would not go unpunished. The Ukrainian Air Force said Sunday that it had shot down 21 of 49 drones launched by Russian forces overnight. The retaliatory Russian attack wounded 28 people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. A hotel, kindergarten, apartment buildings, shops and administrative buildings sustained damage, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had targeted “decision-making centers and military facilities in Kharkiv and had hit the Kharkiv Palace Hotel destroying representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and Ukrainian Armed Forces. A Ukrainian translator was hit by debris and seriously wounded, and one of the team’s security guards also was injured. In the Kyiv region that surrounds Ukraine’s capital, a Russian drone attack caused a fire at a critical infrastructure facility, local officials said. They did not identify the nature of the facility.

Russian troops additionally shelled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Sunday, killing a 14-year-old boy and leaving a 9-year-old boy hospitalized in critical condition with a brain injury, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. On Saturday, shelling in the center of Belgorod killed two dozen people, including three children. Another 108 people were wounded in the strike, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday, making the attack one with the most casualties on Russian soil since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine 22 months ago.

Russian authorities accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack, which took place the day after an 18-hour Russian aerial bombardment across Ukraine killed at least 41 civilians. In an emergency Saturday night meeting of the U.N. Security Council demanded by Russia, envoy Vasily Nebenzya accused Kyiv of a “terrorist attack. In comments carried by Russian state media, Nebenzya claimed Ukraine had launched “a deliberate act of terrorism directed against civilians. This follows a blistering New Year’s Eve assault by Russia last year that killed at least three civilians.