Russia launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in 'large-scale attack on critical facilities', says armed forces
Russian forces launched 70 missiles at Ukraine in its latest “large-scale attack on crucial infrastructure facilities,” Ukraine’s armed forces said.
Ukrainian defence forces shot down 51 of the Russian cruise missiles launched across the country today, as well as five attack drones, according to the top general Valeriy Zaluzhniy.
A total of 21 out of 31 missiles targeting Kyiv were downed by defence forces, according to the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukrainians are “unbreakable” after new Russian strikes across the country.
Ukraine will rebuild infrastructure damaged by today’s attacks and “get through all of this”, he said in a video address posted to Telegram.
Zelenskiy said:
Today, the European parliament recognised Russia as a terrorist state … And then Russia proved that all this is true by using 67 missiles against our infrastructure, our energy grid, and ordinary people.
He also said Ukraine will request an urgent meeting of the UN’s security council to discuss the latest Russian strikes against power-generating facilities.
I have instructed our Ambassador to the UN to request an urgent meeting of UNSC following today’s Russian strikes. Murder of civilians, ruining of civilian infrastructure are acts of terror. Ukraine keeps demanding a resolute response of international community to these crimes.
Kyiv mayor warns city facing ‘worst winter since WWII’
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said warned the Ukrainian capital faces “the worst winter since World War II” after Russian attacks on the city’s energy infrastructure.
Residents in Kyiv had to be ready for the “worst case scenario” of widespread power cuts at low temperatures, he said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild.
Parts of the capital would have to be evacuated in this scenario, he said.
Klitschko said:
We must also prepare for the worst scenario. That would be if there were widespread power cuts and the temperatures were even colder. Then parts of the city would have to be evacuated, but we don’t want it to come to that.
He accused Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, of trying to intimate people and force them out of the city by ordering shelling on civilian infrastructure.
He said:
Putin wants to terrorise people, make them freeze, without light. But that won’t happen. My impression is that people will only get angrier, more determined. We will not die or flee as Putin wants.
At least six people killed in Russian strikes, says police chief
The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, said six people were killed and 36 wounded following a fresh wave of Russian strikes across Ukraine.
The actual number of casualties is expected to be higher, he added.
⚡️Russia's bombardment of Ukraine kills 6, injures 36.
National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said that Russia's Nov. 23 bombardment of Ukraine killed six people and injured 36.
He added that the actual number of casualties is expected to be higher.
The number of people injured in today’s missile attack in Kyiv has risen to nine, according to its mayor Vitali Klitschko. Three people were killed, he said.
The International Rescue Committee has condemned an overnight Russian rocket attack that struck a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a newborn baby.
In a statement, the IRC’s vice president for emergencies, Bob Kitchen, said this morning’s attack on the town of Vilniansk, close to the city of Zaporizhzhia, was part of a “dangerous global trend of increasing attacks on health in conflict”.
He said:
The tragic images of rescuers working at the site of a maternity ward we saw this morning illustrate that women and children continue to pay the highest price for this war.
No child should be born under a barrage of missile strikes. No child should die buried in rubble remaining from hospitals, where their mothers seek safety and protection.
Rescuers moving concrete blocks at the site of a maternity ward destroyed by shelling in Vilniansk, Zaporizhzhia region. Photograph: State Emergency Service Of Ukraine Handout/EPA
Health facilities are protected under international law and should be “safe havens in times of crisis and conflict”, he added.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, has shared an image of 36 of his country’s servicemen who have returned after being held captive in Russia.
Among those who were returned in a prisoner-of-war exchange with Russia were fighters at the Azovstal steelworks of the southern port city of Mariupol, he added.
Returned 36 our citizens from the Russian captivity, one civilian and 35 military personnel. Among them are Mariupol and "Azovstal" defenders, as well as national guards captured at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in early days of the invasion. pic.twitter.com/q8eX5NCICz
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear energy firm, Energoatom, has said power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were switched off after Russian missile strikes across the country.
In a statement, it said “due to a decrease in frequency in the energy system of Ukraine” emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants.
Energoatom added:
Currently, they (power units) work in project mode, without generation into the domestic energy system.
European parliament under cyberattack by pro-Kremlin group, says official
The president of the European parliament, Roberta Metsola, has confirmed that it came under “sophisticated cyberattacks, hours after MEPs voted to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.
A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility for the denial of service attack on the European parliament’s website, she said.
She added that IT experts were “pushing back” against the cyberattack and protecting their systems. She added:
My response: #SlavaUkraini
The @Europarl_EN is under a sophisticated cyberattack. A pro-Kremlin group has claimed responsibility.
Our IT experts are pushing back against it & protecting our systems.
This, after we proclaimed Russia as a State-sponsor of terrorism.
Boris Johnson’s claim that Germany wanted Ukraine to quickly “fold” after Russia’s invasion has been dismissed as “utter nonsense” by Berlin.
PA media reports:
The former prime minister, who was in office when Vladimir Putin’s troops invaded in February, said Germany wanted Ukraine to quickly lose, rather than have a lengthy war, for “all sorts of sound economic reasons”.
But German government spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, on Wednesday sharply refuted his comment.
“We know that the very entertaining former prime minister always has a unique relationship with the truth; this case is no exception,” he said, according to German media.
Berlin swiftly decided to send arms to Ukraine after Moscow launched its invasion, chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesperson said, noting the “facts speak against [Johnson’s] claims”.
Switching to English, Hebestreit added: “This is utter nonsense.”
Germany’s ambassador to the UK tweeted the official’s rejection of Mr Johnson’s claim, which will not have helped UK-German relations.
Johnson earlier told US broadcaster CNN: “The Germans, for all sorts of sound economic reasons, really didn’t want it to … I’ll tell you a terrible thing – the German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster, then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly and for Ukraine to fold.
“I couldn’t support that. I thought that was a disastrous way of looking at it, but I could understand why they thought and felt as they did.”
The ex-PM also said France was in denial “right up until the last moment” when Russian forces crossed the border.
“This thing was a huge shock. We could see the Russian battalion tactical groups amassing but different countries had very different perspectives,” he said.
“Be in no doubt that the French were in denial right up until the last moment.”
This is from Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK.
"We know that the very entertaining former Prime Minister always has a unique relationship with the truth. This case is also no exception."
🇩🇪 Government spokesperson @RegSprecher rejects @BorisJohnson’s claims about Germany’s position regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
