Ukraine war: Missile and drone attack launched against Russia

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A picture of a damaged house, shared by a Russian official, in what he said to be a Ukrainian attack on Belgorod

Russia says it has destroyed dozens of missiles and drones fired at its territory from Ukraine, with a local official reporting one person killed and four injured in an attack.

An initial update from the Russian defence ministry said 13 missiles had been taken down over Belgorod.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the region on the border, earlier said a man was killed after a house was hit.

The attacks follow strikes on Ukraine which killed at least 34 people.

In what Kyiv has described as Russia’s biggest missile bombardment of the war so far, more than 160 people were injured as Russia hit cities across the country on Friday – including the capital Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Lviv.

In an update on Saturday, Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitchsko said four more bodies had been pulled from the rubble of a warehouse that was hit by a missile – taking the total number of killed in the city to 13 and the overall death toll to at least 34.

On Friday, Mr Gladkov also said four people were being treated for injuries in Belgorod after Friday’s attack by Ukraine, adding that ten homes had been damaged and the water supply in the city of Belgorod disrupted.

In a later statement in the early hours of Saturday morning, Russia’s defence ministry said 32 drones had been shot down overnight in the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions.

The governor of Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said drones had been shot down but no one had been hurt.

Belgorod city is 80km (50 miles) north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which was came under heavy fire by Russian forces on Friday morning as part of the wide-ranging strikes.

On Friday evening, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s renewed mass-bombing campaign in Ukraine and said attacks must stop “immediately”.

Countries including the US, UK and France said hitting civilian infrastructure had violated the international rules of war.

“Rather than peace, Putin chose to mark this holiday season… with an unprecedented number of drone and missile attacks,” US representative to the UN John Kelley said.

Russia said Ukrainian air defences were to blame for causing damage to civilian buildings.

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