Ukraine said at least five people were killed and 135 injured in the latest attacks targeting the capital Kyiv and second city Kharkiv (Picture: Reuters)
Vladimir Putin unleashed a barrage of missiles and kamikaze drones in another wave of heavy air strikes on Ukraine’s two biggest cities.
His New Year ‘revenge’ blitzkrieg is estimated to have cost around half a billion pounds so far, and featured the most feared weapons in Russia’s arsenal.
Ukraine said at least five people were killed and 135 injured in the latest attacks targeting the capital Kyiv and second city Kharkiv in the northeast.
Army chief General said air defences shot down all 10 of the Russian Kinzhal missiles, which Putin has previously hailed as unstoppable because they can fly at 10 times the speed of sound.
‘Today, the Ukrainian air force downed 10 out of 10 Russian “Kinzhal”… aeroballistic missiles with the help of the Patriot AD system,’ he said on social media.
‘This is a record. If the missiles hit their targets, the consequences would be catastrophic.’
The Kinzhal, ‘dagger’ in Russian, is an air-launched ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads.
They are rarely used by the Kremlin due to its cost and limited stocks, with each unit costing upwards of £8 million ($10 million).
Firefighters uncoiling fire hose in Podilskyi district after the Russian missile attack (Picture: Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images )
People look at a fire after a missile strike in Kyiv (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Tuesday’s barrage was the highest number used in one attack since the start of the war, Ukraine air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said.
The latest round of attacks began Friday with Russia’s largest single assault on Ukraine of the war, as fighting along the 620-mile front line has subsided into grinding attrition amid winter.
At least 41 civilians were killed since the weekend.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired almost 100 missiles of various types in the attacks.
A rescuer helps a local woman leave an apartment building which was heavily damaged (Picture: Reuters)
The barrage comes as Russia started the new year with intensified aerial attacks across multiple cities (Picture: Getty)
He claimed at least 70 were shot down, almost all of them in the Kyiv area, noting that Western-supplied air defence systems such as Patriots and NASAMS had saved hundreds of lives.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had launched missile and drone strikes on military industrial facilities in and around Kyiv.
Depots storing missiles and munitions supplied by the West also were targeted, it said.
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‘The goal of the strike has been achieved, all the targets have been hit,’ it said without elaborating.
It was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
In his nightly address, Zelensky said Russia has used almost 300 missiles and more than 200 Shahed drones against Ukraine since December 29.
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His New Year ‘revenge’ blitzkrieg is estimated to have cost around half a billion pounds so far.
