KYIV: A December 29 missile attack killed around 32 people in Kyiv, officials said Thursday, raising the death count of the deadliest assault on the Ukrainian capital since the war started.
Russia has in recent days increased aerial strikes against Ukraine, which says it has enough munition to withstand a few powerful attacks but would soon need more help.
The chief of the Kyiv military administration Sergiy Popko said that the total number of dead as a result of the missile attack on December 29 is 32 persons. He added that around thirty people were injured in the strike.
Death Count in Russia’s Deadliest Attack on Ukraine’s Capital Kyiv Reaches 32
However, Russia said that it only targets military infrastructure in the region. Kyiv city mayor Vitali Klitschko had said earlier that the December 29 attack was “the largest in terms of civilian casualties.”
Russia forces had on that day launched around 158 missiles and drones over Ukraine, the air force added. The strike killed around 55 people and wounded around 170.
Ukraine forces have also retaliated and the Russian border region of Belgorod faced a wave of assaults over the weekend, with 25 people killed — an extraordinary toll since the beginning of the offensive around two years ago.
The development comes as Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday announced their first exchange of prisoners of war (POW) for almost five months, with over 200 freed by each side following what Moscow stated was a complex dialogue involving mediation by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Russia’s ministry of defence said around 248 military officials had been handed over by Ukrainian authorities. Officials in Kyiv stated it had brought home around 230 people including 224 soldiers and six civilians – in what it said had been the largest documented exchange of soldiers so far.
Ukraine’s prisoners of war (POW) coordination center also briefly admitted the role of UAE in the exchange of troops, without giving more details.
Despite the lack of any negotiation on how to end the 22-month conflict, Ukraine and Russia have held many prisoner swaps since the early months of Russia’s attack in February 2022. But the rate of the exchanges of prisoners dropped in 2023 and the last one occurred in early August.
