KIEV/BAKHMUT, Ukraine, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as Russia launched more than 100 missiles early on Thursday, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said, and explosions were heard in several cities, including the capital Kyiv. A massive airstrike. More than 100 missiles in several waves,” presidential office adviser Oleksiy Arestovych wrote on Facebook, and the head of Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region also reported Russian missiles in the air.
Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Odesa, according to a Reuters correspondent and local media reports.
Power outages were announced in Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions, with the aim of minimizing potential damage to energy infrastructure.
The bombing came hard after the Kremlin rejected a Ukrainian peace plan, insisting that Kyiv accept Russia’s annexation of four regions.
Moscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, but Ukraine says its daily bombardment is destroying cities, towns and the country’s infrastructure from power to medicine.
On Wednesday, Russian airstrikes hit the maternity wing of a hospital in the city of Kherson, although no one was injured, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Staff and patients were taken to a shelter, Tymoshenko said in a post on Telegram.
“It was terrifying … the explosions started suddenly, the window handle started to tear off … oh, my hands are still shaking,” said Olha Prysidko, a new mother. “When we got to the basement, the bombing wasn’t over. Not for a minute.”
The recently liberated southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has remained under constant shelling from Russian forces who had retreated to the east bank of the river when the city was retaken in a major victory for Ukraine last month.
Zelenskiy, in a video address, urged Ukrainians to hug their loved ones, tell friends they appreciate them, support colleagues, thank their parents and rejoice with their children more often.
“We have not lost our humanity, even though we have endured terrible months,” he said. “And we’re not going to lose it, even though it’s a tough year ahead.”
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th. Kyiv and its Western allies have denounced Russia’s actions as an imperialist-style land grab. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls it a “special military operation” to demilitarize his neighbor.
Broad sanctions have been imposed on Russia over the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, driven millions from their homes, left cities in ruins and shaken the global economy, raising energy prices and the food.
Russian gas exports to Europe via pipelines plunged to a post-Soviet low in 2022 as its biggest customer cut imports due to the Ukraine conflict and a major pipeline was damaged by mysterious explosions, show Gazprom data and Reuters calculations.
‘TODAY’S REALITIES’
There is still no prospect of talks to end the war.
Zelenskiy is pushing hard for a 10-point peace plan that calls for Russia to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and withdraw all its troops.
But Moscow dismissed that on Wednesday, reiterating that Kyiv must accept Russia’s annexation of the four regions: Luhansk and Donetsk in the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.
There can be no peace plan “that does not take into account the current realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Zelenskiy’s idea of expelling Russia from eastern Ukraine and Crimea with Western help and getting Moscow to pay damages to Kyiv is an “illusion”. the RIA news agency reported.
TASS quoted Lavrov as saying that Russia would continue to increase its fighting force and technological capabilities in Ukraine. He said Moscow’s mobilized troops had undergone “serious training” and that while many were now on the ground, most were not yet at the front.
Zelenskiy told parliament to stick together and praised Ukrainians for helping the West “find itself”.
“Our national colors are today an international symbol of bravery and indomitability around the world,” he said in an annual closed-door speech.
KHERSON ATTACKS
On the battlefront, Russia bombed more than 25 settlements around Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Wednesday. The Kherson region, at the mouth of the Dnipro, serves as the gateway to Russian-annexed Crimea.
Heavy fighting persisted around the Ukrainian-held town of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk province, and to the north around the towns of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk, where Ukrainian forces are trying to break through Russian defensive lines .
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia had likely reinforced the Kreminna section of the frontline as it is logistically important and relatively vulnerable following Ukrainian advances further west.
Kyiv-based military analyst Oleh Zhdanov noted that the city and region of Kharkiv had also suffered heavy attacks that damaged a regional gas pipeline.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a Telegram post that the city had been attacked twice, “presumably” by Iranian Shahed drones, five of which were reported separately by Ukraine’s Eastern Air Command about the city of Dnipro.
Reuters could not verify reports from the battlefield.
Reuters bureau reports; Written by Himani Sarkar; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Michael Perry
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