Russian missile attacks kill five people in Ukraine, officials say Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv killed at least five people on Tuesday and injured dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said. The figure was put at four earlier. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram that two people had died after a high-rise building caught fire from a Russian rocket attack in the Solomyansky district of the Ukrainian capital. In Kharkiv, a 91-year-old woman was killed in a missile attack that left a metres-deep crater near damaged residential buildings, Oleh Synehubov, Kharkiv’s regional governor, said. A married couple were killed and 11 people were hurt in the area outside Kyiv, the regional administration said. Closing summary Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv killed at least five people on Tuesday and injured dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said. Officials said the attacks caused widespread damage and hit power supplies. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said gas pipelines had been damaged in Kyiv’s Pecherskyi district, while electricity and water had been cut off in several districts of the capital. Heating and water supplies were damaged in Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said. One man was killed and seven people were injured on Tuesday in a Ukrainian attack on the city and region of Belgorod, near Russia’s border with Ukraine, the defence ministry and regional officials said. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged faster supplies of air defence systems, combat drones and long-range missiles, the ministry said. It said Kuleba called on Ukraine’s western partners to respond to a new Russian strike on Ukraine by “accelerating the supply of additional air defence systems, combat drones of all types, long-range missiles with a range of 300+ km”. Russia said it had accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near Ukraine. In a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, the Russian army said: “On 2 January 2024, at around 9am Moscow time (GMT), during a flight of the aerospace forces, an abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition occurred over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region. There are no casualties.” Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausėda, and Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, have called for more air defence systems for Ukraine after Russia’s large-scale missile attack on Tuesday. Nausėda wrote on X that “Ukrainians do wonders with the air defence the west has provided, but they need more,” adding “air defence systems to Ukraine now!”. Rinkēvičs, meanwhile, wrote that “Ukrainian air defence works well, but Ukraine must get more help,” adding that western countries must get “serious”. Here is an update on the situation in Belgorod, near Russia’s border with Ukraine: One man was killed and seven people were injured on Tuesday in a Ukrainian attack on the city and region of Belgorod, the defence ministry and regional officials said. The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the man was killed by a missile that landed next to his car, and four people had been injured at a vehicle market, Reuters reports. Overall, officials said Russian air defences had shot down 17 Ukrainian “air targets” including rockets fired from multiple missile launchers, and that a number of houses and cars had been damaged. The national energy company Ukrenergo said 250,000 consumers were without electricity in Kyiv and surrounding areas after the strikes on the capital. Temperatures in the region were hovering close to 3C, according to Agence France-Presse. Turkey said on Tuesday it would not allow two British minehunter ships to transit its waters en route to the Black Sea for use by Ukraine since it would violate an international pact concerning wartime passage of the straits, Reuters reports. Britain said last month it would transfer two Royal Navy minehunter ships to the Ukrainian navy to help strengthen the country’s sea operations in its war with Russia. Turkey, a Nato member, informed allies that it would not allow the vessels to use its Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits while the war in Ukraine continued, said the presidency’s communications directorate. When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Turkey triggered the 1936 Montreux convention, in effect blocking passage of military ships for the warring parties. The pact exempts ships from returning to home bases. Turkey had implemented the convention impartially and meticulously to prevent escalation in the Black Sea, the presidency said. Ankara has maintained good ties with Kyiv and Moscow throughout the war. Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said at least 115 people had been injured in Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Tuesday. Five deaths have been reported so far. On X, Kostin said “children and entire families” were among those injured and called the attacks “a blatant act of terrorism”. Russian airstrikes on a residential building in the city of Orikhiv, in Zaporizhzhia oblast, on Tuesday injured a 75-year-old woman, the governor, Yuriy Malashko, reported. He wrote on Telegram: As a result of the strike, the house was mutilated, and the entire entrance was destroyed. A resident of one of the apartments in the building, a 75-year-old woman, was taken to the hospital with injuries. Another act of genocide against peaceful people. Only because they are Ukrainians. Because they are Unbreakable! Moscow said on Tuesday it had downed nine missiles fired by Kyiv over Russia’s Belgorod border region (see earlier post at 10.50 for more details). Russian missile attacks kill five people in Ukraine, officials say Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and the north-eastern city of Kharkiv killed at least five people on Tuesday and injured dozens of others, Ukrainian officials said. The figure was put at four earlier. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram that two people had died after a high-rise building caught fire from a Russian rocket attack in the Solomyansky district of the Ukrainian capital. In Kharkiv, a 91-year-old woman was killed in a missile attack that left a metres-deep crater near damaged residential buildings, Oleh Synehubov, Kharkiv’s regional governor, said. A married couple were killed and 11 people were hurt in the area outside Kyiv, the regional administration said. Energy workers have restored power for some residents of the Sviatoshynskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Obolonskyi, and Podilskyi districts of Kyiv after the Russian missile attack on Tuesday, the Ukrainian energy company DTEK reported. About 86,000 people remained without electricity in Kyiv and the wider Kyiv region, the energy ministry said, according to the Kyiv Independent. Summary of the day so far... Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged faster supplies of air defence systems, combat drones and long-range missiles, the ministry said. It said Kuleba called on Ukraine’s western partners to respond to a new Russian strike on Ukraine by “accelerating the supply of additional air defence systems, combat drones of all types, long-range missiles with a range of 300+ km”. Russia said it had accidentally bombed a village in its southern Voronezh region near Ukraine. In a statement quoted by Russian news agencies, the Russian army said: “On 2 January 2024, at around 9am Moscow time (GMT), during a flight of the aerospace forces, an abnormal discharge of aircraft ammunition occurred over the village of Petropavlovka in the Voronezh region. There are no casualties.” Officials said Russian missile attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday have so far killed four people, according to Agence France-Presse. As well as the reported death in Kharkiv and the death of the woman reported by the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, the country’s interior minister, Igor Klymenko, said two people were killed in the Kyiv region. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said “Russia will answer for every life taken away” after the attacks.