Day 676 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Russia Responded to the Ukrainian Attack on Belgorod with 50 Kamikaze Drones

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Day 676 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• Russia responded to the Ukrainian strike on Belgorod with 50 kamikaze drones in several areas
• The death toll in the attack on Belgorod reached 22, according to Russia, which launched retaliatory airstrikes against Kharkiv in Ukraine
• Russia has jailed more than 200 captured Ukrainian fighters, Lavrov said

Russia responded to the Ukrainian strike on Belgorod with 50 kamikaze drones in several areas

The Russian military has launched nearly 50 kamikaze drones at targets in Ukraine - 21 of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, after the deadly Ukrainian attack on Belgorod.

"The majority of the attacking drones were directed by the enemy to the front line of defense, and also (hit) civilian, military and infrastructure facilities in the front-line territories, in particular in Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions," was said in a military statement quoted by the BBC.

In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported a strike on Kharkiv with six S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles.

The Russian military has not commented on the drone strikes against Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry commented on the attack on Kharkiv, saying that the Russian military hit decision-making centers and military facilities in the city in response to the shelling of Belgorod.

"A high-precision missile attack on the former Kharkiv Palace hotel complex destroyed representatives of the GUR and VSU, who were directly involved in the planning and execution of the terrorist attack in Belgorod," the ministry said.

In addition, the building of the Security Service of the Kharkiv region and the temporary deployment point of the "Right Sector" were hit.

The Russian army launched a series of strikes on Kharkiv on the evening of December 30. According to the mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, a total of at least six rockets were fired, including in the city center, injuring 28 people.

On the night of December 30, the city was also attacked by drones, which local authorities said damaged residential buildings and offices rather than military sites.

This is what the Kharkiv Palace hotel in Kharkiv looks now after being shelled by the occupiers pic.twitter.com/0iCnl9smbW

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 31, 2023

Meanwhile, the death toll in Belgorod rose to 24, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced.

"Forensic experts have established that there is another dead child. Another injured person died in the hospital without regaining consciousness," he pointed out.

A total of 108 people were injured.

"Various damages have been found in 37 residential blocks, 453 apartments, 3 households, 7 social facilities. The owners of 53 damaged cars have been found. Work on damage assessment continues," Gladkov added. ⠀

Magadan Mayor Yury Grishan canceled all official New Year's celebrations in the city in connection with the deaths in Belgorod.

"Dear citizens of Magadan, I am sure that everyone is following the recent events that happened in Belgorod. I express my deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who died in the shelling of Belgorod. I consider it inappropriate to hold New Year's events at midnight on Theater Square," wrote Grishan in his Telegram channel.

The authorities of other cities in the Far East gave up New Year's fireworks - they were canceled in Vladivostok, Blagoveshchensk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The death toll in the attack on Belgorod reached 24, according to Russia, which launched retaliatory airstrikes against Kharkiv in Ukraine

The number of people killed in yesterday's airstrike against the Russian city of Belgorod, north of the border with Ukraine, reached 24 people, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported today, quoted by Reuters.

"Unfortunately and to our sorrow, the number of dead has increased after yesterday's shelling of Belgorod, they reached 24 people," Gladkov wrote on "Telegram".

Three children were among the dead, and 111 people were injured.

According to the governor of Russia's Belgorod region, the airstrike damaged 30 residential buildings, several houses and cars.

The Russian Defense Ministry said yesterday that Ukraine had hit Belgorod with several missiles of different types, adding that most of them were shot down, but some debris fell on the city.

Reuters was unable to independently verify Russia's reports.

The Ukrainian news agency RBC-Ukraine cited sources as saying that Ukrainian forces struck military targets in Belgorod yesterday in response to massive Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities the previous day.

The Russian newspaper "Kommersant" wrote that Ukraine fired the missiles at Belgorod from the Kharkiv region, located on the other side of the border.

Hours after the attack on the city, Russia launched a series of airstrikes against Kharkiv, injuring at least 21 people. Damage was also caused to residential buildings, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia has jailed more than 200 captured Ukrainian fighters, Lavrov said

Russia has jailed more than 200 captured Ukrainian fighters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with state news agency RIA published on Sunday.

"Courts of the Russian Federation have already sentenced more than 200 representatives of Ukrainian armed forces to long terms of imprisonment for committing atrocities," Lavrov said.

The two sides in the conflict accuse each other of carrying out numerous atrocities in the war, which Russia began with a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UN has found persistent evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses by Russian authorities, including torture, rape and deportation of children.

In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleging that Moscow's forced deportation of Ukrainian children was a war crime.

"On our path to justice, the main result of the year is undoubtedly the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Putin," said Ukraine's chief prosecutor Andriy Kostin. "A historic decision and a clear signal that no one can be above the law," he added.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has registered more than 121,000 Russian crimes related to aggression and war crimes, according to its website.

The UN has also identified several cases in which Ukrainian authorities have committed human rights violations against people accused of collaborating with Russian authorities, Reuters adds.

Lavrov told RIA that Russia's main investigative body, the Investigative Committee, has opened 4,000 criminal cases against about 900 Ukrainian individuals. They include not only members of radical nationalist associations, representatives of the Ukrainian security forces and mercenaries, but also representatives of the military and political leadership of Ukraine. "Those of them who are accused in absentia have been placed on the list of internationally wanted persons," he added.

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