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Dec. 29 (UPI) — Ukrainian officials said at least three people were killed Thursday as Russia unleashed a wave of strikes.
Oleksander Khorunzhyy, press officer for the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, told CNN two people were killed in the Kharkiv region and another was killed in the Donetsk region.
Thursday’s barrage is one of the “most massive” of the war, according to Ukrainian officials.
“Russian terrorists have been saving one of the most massive missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion for the last days of the year. They dream that Ukrainians will celebrate the New Year in darkness and cold. But they cannot defeat the Ukrainian people,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense tweeted Thursday.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said three people were hospitalized due to the strikes and that 40% of the capital city is without power. Lviv Mayor Andrei Sadovyi said 90% of the western city is without power.
“According to preliminary data, 69 missiles were launched in total. 54 enemy cruise missiles were shot down by the assists of the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyl, said on Telegram.
Presidential Advisor Kyrylo Tymoshenko said a Russian missile crashed into a home in the Ivano-Frankivsk region but didn’t explode.
Belarus summoned the Ukrainian Ambassador as government officials claim Belarusian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian S-300 anti air missile.
The Belarusian Ministry of Defense claims fragments were found in a field. “During the verification process, it was established that the wreckage belongs to an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile fried from the territory of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
Thursday’s strike came as Moscow has repeatedly rebuffed plans by the Ukrainian government to end the war.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected a 10-point peace proposal that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested during a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week.
“We assess the latest nonsensical idea as another PR campaign from Washington, which has recently tried to present the Kyiv regime as a peacekeeper,” Zakharova told reporters.
