Russia’s military has deliberately hit a hotel favoured by international media in Kharkiv as revenge for an alleged Ukrainian missile strike on a Russian city.
At least 28 people were injured in the Saturday evening missile strike on the Kharkiv Palace Hotel in the centre of the city.
A British citizen and a security adviser to a group of German journalists were among the wounded, according to a statement by the office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said that Ukraine’s SBU military intelligence service had used the hotel as a base, although this was denied by Ukrainian officials.
“A high-precision missile strike on the former Kharkiv Palace Hotel complex destroyed representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, directly involved in the planning and execution of the terrorist attack in Belgorod,” it said in a statement.
Ukraine’s Air Force said that Russia fired six S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles at the centre of Kharkiv. These missiles were followed by drone attacks across Ukraine, including against Kharkiv, that damaged several residential buildings.
Photos from the attack showed the 5-star Kharkiv Palace Hotel virtually destroyed. All its windows had been blown out and a gaping hole was left in part of the building.
“On the eve of the New Year, Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared,” said Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov.
On Sunday, Kyiv said it had destroyed 21 of 49 Iranian-made Shahed drones fired by Russia in its missile assault.
Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, lies 20 miles from the border with Russia and 50 miles from the Russian city of Belgorod which was attacked earlier on Saturday.
Russian officials blamed Ukraine for the missile attack on Belgorod that killed 24 people and injured 108. Ukrainian officials denied the strike and instead said that it was a stray Russian missile.
The deaths in Belgorod were the largest number of Russian civilians killed in a single incident since the start of the war and several regions in Russia cancelled New Year’s Eve celebrations.
This week has been one of the deadliest away from the frontlines in Ukraine.
As well as the alleged missile strikes on Belgorod and the attack on Kharkiv, on Dec 26, a Ukrainian missile attack sank a Russian warship docked in occupied Crimea, possibly killing more than 70 sailors, according to some local media. This triggered a Russian retaliatory missile attack against several cities across Ukraine that killed 40 people.
