Kyiv (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv, damaging embassy buildings; Zelensky calls Putin a “dumbass.”
Ukrainian officials have reported that Russia had undertaken a fresh missile raid on Kyiv, harming a building hosting several embassies. The attack comes a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin contested Ukraine to a “duel” in his end-of-year conference, initiating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to call the Russian leader a “dumbass.”
“Let them propose… some kind of technological experiment – a sort of high-tech duel of the 21st century, let’s say,”
Putin stated.
Zelensky in reaction hurled the rough epithet at the Kremlin leader in statements made online.
How did Ukrainian air defences respond to Russian missiles?
As reported by Ukraine’s Air Force Command, Moscow fired five ballistic missiles at Kyiv. Ukrainian air defences intercepted all five missiles. In expansion, 40 UAVs were thawrted, and another 20 drones did not achieve their marks, according to the command. However, falling debris induced damage and impairments in the city centre, officials stated.
The head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Serhiy Popko said that in one community, an office tower, road surface and gas pipe were injured, and five cars caught blaze. In another community, a fire broke out at the location of a building under construction. Many embassies housed in the same facility were damaged, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry, with a spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, naming the attack “barbaric.”
What embassies were affected by the missile attack?
These are the embassies of Palestine Albania, North Macedonia, Argentina, Portugal and Montenegro,” Tykhyi described at a media briefing. “Windows and doors were smashed in the premises.”
What were the targets of Russia’s retaliatory missile strike?
Russia’s defence ministry expressed it undertook long-range missiles at Ukrainian military targets in reaction to a Ukrainian raid targeting a chemical plant in Russia’s Rostov area earlier this week. That raid was carried out utilising American-made ATACMS missiles, the ministry stated.
“In reaction to the actions of the Kyiv regime, backed by Western curators a group strike with long-range accuracy weapons was launched against the SBU command post, the Kyiv Luch design bureau, which develops and simulates Neptune missile systems, Olkha ground-based cruise missiles, and the functions of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile design,”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said.
“The strike targets were executed. All objects were hit,”
it said.
