Putin kept his promise to intensify strikes after Belgorod attack

Vladimir Putin vowed to intensify attacks against Ukrainian military targets following an alleged missile strike on the Russian city of Belgorod that left several people dead and more than one hundred others wounded. 

"We're going to intensify the strikes,” Putin stated while visiting a military hospital. “No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that's for certain," he added according to a translation of his comments by the Kyiv Post. 

Military installations were planned to be the main targets of Russia’s retaliation for the strike on Belgorod and Putin claimed that retribution would be swift, saying that Russia planned to strike Ukraine that same day. 

"We are doing that today and tomorrow we will continue doing it," Putin stated, adding: "What happened in Belgorod is a terrorist act…"There is no other way to call it,” Putin added, claiming the strike was meant for civilians.

Putin accused Ukraine of targeting the center of Belgorod because it was “where people were walking around, before New Year's Eve,” and he claimed that the strike was meant to "purposefully hit the civilian population.” 

The last week of December was one of the bloodiest the war’s civilian populations had seen since the conflict began nearly two years ago. The Guardian reported 30 civilians were killed and 160 injured by the air strikes. 

December 29th saw residential buildings in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and other cities attacked by Moscow, while a shopping centre and maternity hospital were hit in Dnipro. Russia fired a total of 157 missiles and drones.

Ukraine claimed it shot down 87 cruise missiles as well as 27 drones and the country’s defense Ministry Rustem Umerov called the Russian strike the “most massive air attack of this war” according to The Guardian's reporting.

Ukraine’s response, the attack against Belgorod, saw two missiles launched by Ukraine at the center as well as several rockets according to a statement released by the Russian Ministry of Defense following the deadly attack.

According to CNN, at least 24 people were killed in the attack, including three children and another 108 people were injured. Those figures were published on December 30th and may continue to rise in the coming days. 

Putin’s promise of retaliation wasn’t a bluff. Ukraine was hit again on January 1st by a massive air attack that targeted most of the country’s largest cities. BBC News reported a woman was killed in Kharkiv while 44 others were wounded. 

The Ukrainian Air Force was able to drone 35 of the drones launched by Russia but the Kremlin also ordered its strategic bombers into the air, and after the initial drone assault, 99 missiles of various kinds were fired at Ukraine. 

BBC News reported that Ukrainian officials claimed 72 cruise missiles and supersonic missiles had been destroyed. However, the true scale of Russia’s air strikes as well as the damage that they wrought may not be known for days.  

“Another attack by Russian savages,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his social media accompanied by a video explaining the attack. “Almost a hundred missiles of various types. At least 70 missiles were shot down."

Zelensky added that nearly 60 of the downed missiles were intercepted near Kyiv and added that there were several strikes that focused on Kharkiv. “Work is now being done to eliminate the consequences,” he added. 

Unfortunately, the New Year has brought with it a tit-for-tat air strike duel that isn’t likely to end anytime soon if both Russia and Ukraine continue to retaliate. What will happen next is still unknown but more strikes may follow.