- At least three people were killed and dozens more injured in strikes today
Vladimir Putin unleashed hypersonic missiles in Russia’s latest deadly wave of airstrikes across Ukraine, regional officials said Monday.
At least three people were killed and dozens injured in the attacks. Two people were killed in the regions of Khmelnytskyi and Dnipropetrovsk, deputy head of the presidency Oleksiy Kuleba said, while another was reported killed in Kharkiv region.
Ukrainian said it had destroyed 18 out of the 51 missiles of different types launched.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence reported that Russia is on course to have lost a total of 500,000 soldiers by the end of this year.
It said the average daily number of Russian casualties in Ukraine rose by almost 300 over the course of 2023, citing data from Ukraine’s defence ministry.
It put the mounting toll down to Russia’s attacks on Avdiivka, a small eastern town that sits on the edge of the currently-occupied Donetsk region.
Vladimir Putin unleashed hypersonic missiles in Russia’s latest deadly wave of airstrikes across Ukraine, regional officials said Monday. Pictured: Flames are seen in a destroyed building
Volunteers talk next to a damaged apartment building at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine January 8
People take shelter inside a metro station during an air raid alert in Kyiv, January 8
The MoD said the increased casualty rate reflects how the quality of the Russian president’s army has deteriorated following the partial mobilisation in September 2022, which saw Moscow call up 300,000 more troops.
The mobilisations turned Russia’s arm into a ‘a low quality, high quantity mass army, the Ministry of Defence said in its report.
It also reflects reports of Moscow deploying ‘human wave’ tactics, which involves sending thousands of poorly-trained soldiers to their deaths to wear down Ukraine’s defences and to seek out weak points that can be exploited.
While the UK’s MoD said it could not independently verify the methodology used by its Ukrainian counterpart, it has previously said the figures are ‘plausible’.
John Kirby, the spokesperson for the US National Security Council demonstrates that Russia ‘continues to show no regard for the lives of its own soldiers, willingly sacrificing them in pursuit of Putin’s goals.’
In its report, the UK’s MoD said it will likely take Russia between five and ten years to rebuild a ‘highly trained, experienced readiness force.’
Neither side made major advances in 2023, with Ukraine’s much-vaunted counteroffensive failing to make the gains Kyiv had hoped for.
This was largely down to Russia fortifying its defences, laying vast minefields across the hundreds of miles of Ukraine that make up the war’s frontline.
Russia, meanwhile, appears to have adopted a tactic of attrition, looking to wear Ukraine’s forces down with overwhelming numbers – while deploying withering air strikes on critical infrastructure in the cold months of winter.
This was again seen on Monday with the strikes across the country.
The UK’s MoD put Russia’s mounting toll down to its attacks on Avdiivka, a small eastern town that sits on the edge of the currently-occupied Donetsk region (pictured)
The strikes come less than a week after Kyiv warned it only had enough ammunition to withstand a few more powerful attacks, amid intense Russian bombardment.
‘The enemy launched dozens of missiles at peaceful cities and villages of Ukraine,’ Ukraine’s deputy head of the presidency Oleksiy Kuleba said.
He added that at least 33 were injured.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 32 cruise missiles overnight as well as eight ‘Shahed’ drones, and that all the drones had been downed.
‘Critical infrastructure facilities, industrial civilian and military facilities were attacked,’ the air force said.
Russian missiles hit a shopping centre and high-rise buildings in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rig, killing one person, Kuleba said.
‘In Kryvyi Rig, there are many breakages in power grids, there are power outages, and electric transport does not work,’ Kuleba said.
One person was also killed by separate ‘explosions’ in the western region of Khmelnytsky, he added, far from the frontlines in the east.
In the eastern region of Kharkiv, an elderly woman who was pulled from the rubble of her house in the city of Zmiiv also died, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.
The mammoth assault was said to have used Russia’s strategic warplanes and hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.
A nationwide air raid alert was in force for the latest attacks by Putin’s forces.
A building was seen engulfed in flames in Novomoskovsk, Dnipropetrovsk region.
Three administrative buildings, two filling stations, a five-story building, and cars were also damaged, and a minibus was overturned by a shockwave.
The wounded in the city from the latest savage Putin attack included five children – boys aged four and eight, and girls aged 11, 16 and 17.
Investigators stand next to a car destroyed by a Russian missile in Zaporizhzhia, January 8
A local woman stands next to a damaged apartment building at a site of a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine January 8
Police officers work at a site of a Russian missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, January 8
Ukrainian Emergency Service workers help a wounded man after a residential houses were badly damaged in a Russian missile attack, near Kryvyi Rih, January 8
A destroyed house is seen near Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, January 8
There were also dead and wounded from the wave of strikes in Dnipropetrovsk region, and in Krivoy Rog, a shopping centre and more than two dozen private houses were damaged. A 58-year-old man received shrapnel wounds.
In the village of Lozovatka, a 62-year-old woman died under fire, according to reports.
In Zmyiv, Kharkiv region, people were pulled out from the rubble after a strike, but rescuers were seeking one more feared to be buried under the ruins of a house.
Russian forces struck industrial facilities in Kharkiv, injuring three people.
Strikes also hit Zaporizhzhia and Khmelnytskyi regions.
In a repeat of an incident last week, a Russian warplane unleashed a missile on its own territory causing the evacuation of residents.
Ukraine reported that the attacks included Kh-101/555 cruise missiles launched at least ten times by Tu-95 strategic bombers overflying the Caspian Sea.
Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were unleashed from MiG-31K warplanes.
S-300/S400 ballistic missiles were fired from occupied Crimea and the Russian region of Belgorod.
Kh-22/32 supersonic missiles were deployed from Tu-22M3 bombers overflying the Russians regions of Kursk and Voronezh.
Meanwhile in Russia, the authorities are evacuating children from the border city Belgorod which has faced intense attacks from Ukraine.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said posted a video to reveal the move to other Russian regions.
Oleh, a serviceman of infantry battalion of the 61st mechanised brigade plays with dogs in a trench at a position near the frontline in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, January 6
‘Over the past 24 hours, we have received 1,300 applications to send children from Belgorod to remote school camps in other regions [away from the war zone],’ he said. ‘I called my fellow governors from the Voronezh, Kaluga, Tambov, and Yaroslavl regions. They are all ready to help us.
‘Now we have already sent our specialists to look at the location where the children are being placed.’
Adults too are demanding to bail out of a city just 25 miles from the border with Ukraine.
‘Some 300 residents of Belgorod, who decided to temporarily evacuate, are at the moment being housed in temporary shelter centres in Stary Oskol, Gubkin and the Korochansky district,’ said Gladkov.