Ukraine Responds With Drone Swarm After Russian Strikes Kill 39

(Bloomberg) -- Russia said its air defense shot down 32 Ukrainian drones, including near Moscow, in one of the biggest strikes on central Russia in recent months, with casualties reported in the Belgorod region.  

The drone swarm came a day after what Ukraine described as the heaviest Russian missile bombardment of the 22-month war. At least 39 people were killed, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Saturday, including many in the capital, Kyiv. Another 159 or more were injured in cities across Ukraine. The exchange of hostilities shattered a relative calm in the air over recent weeks. 

Belgium's prime minister vowed in a newspaper interview that Europe will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” as his nation prepares to take up the EU's rotating presidency on Jan. 1. That includes urgent work on the next €50 billion aid package.  

Russia's defense ministry reported that the drones were destroyed over the Moscow, Bryansk, Orel and Kursk regions. 

Rockets were shot down over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. At least two children were killed and several others injured, said the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. Unverified videos on social media showed scenes of panic around an ice rink and shopping center. 

The governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said air defenses were working overnight in the city of Bryansk, with two unmanned aerial vehicles destroyed. According to him, there are no injuries. 

In a rare acknowledgment of its activities in Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry announced 50 group strikes and “one massive strike” from Dec. 23 to Dec. 29 on a range of Ukrainian military facilities.

According to Ukraine's army, Russia fired 122 missiles and 36 drones Thursday night into Friday morning, with dozens hitting their marks in cities from Kharkiv in the northeast to Odesa on Black Sea coast to Lviv in the far west, close to Poland. 

Some of the Russian bombardment hit critical infrastructure but much of it was directed at civilian targets, including schools, houses and apartment blocks and a maternity hospital in Dnipro where a dozen women were in labor at the time of the strike. 

The Russia attack, which included hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles, were widely condemned. 

The UK immediately announced plans to ship about 200 air defense missiles to help Ukraine's defensive efforts. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov spoke with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin following Friday's attacks, the US defense department said. 

Belgian premier Alexander De Croo said he and European Council President Charles Michel will work between now and an extraordinary summit on Feb. 1 to forge an agreement on aid to Ukraine among the 27 member states. 

“Wars are won with industry,” De Croo told Le Soir newspaper, addressing Europe's ability to supply sufficient weapons and ammunition to Kyiv. “The war industry is underway in Russia while there is much more hesitation in Europe.” 

In a post Saturday on X, formerly Twitter, Zelenskiy said that “weapons in the hands of Ukrainians are always a means of protecting lives, and each manifestation of Russian terror repeatedly proves that we cannot delay assistance to those who stand against terror.”  

Friday's Kremlin attack was seen as retaliation for Ukraine's destruction of the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk in Feodosia, Crimea, earlier in the week. It was also a reversion to the pattern of last winter, when Russian troops regularly bombarded Ukraine's energy facilities, causing widespread power outages during the coldest months of the year. 

The Russian strikes seemed to be the culmination of “several months of Russian experimentation with various drone and missile combinations, and efforts to test Ukrainian air defenses,” US-based analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said in an update. 

“Russia was likely stockpiling missiles through fall/early winter 2023 to build a more diverse strike package and apply lessons learned over the course of recent recon and probing missions,” ISW added.  

Separately, Russia said Saturday it destroyed an unmanned Ukrainian vessel heading toward the coast of the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. 

Ukraine's general staff reported another ten Russian drones fired overnight, with five shot down. A missile was downed Saturday in the Zaporizhzhia area. 

--With assistance from Olesia Safronova and Lyubov Pronina.

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