UPDATES WITH LATEST CASUALTY FIGURES; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; ADDS STATEMENT FROM RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY & LOCAL OFFICIALS; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - More than 100 casualties were reported in Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, officials said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine’s Saturday attack on Belgorod “will not go unpunished.”
"The number of victims in a house in the Solomianskyi district has increased to 49. There are two dead. 43 people were hospitalized. All emergency services are on site," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
In the greater Kyiv region, missile strikes in the Obukhivskyi, Boryspilskyi, Buchanskyi, and Fastivskyi districts resulted in two deaths, with 16 people wounded, according to Ukraine's State Emergency Service.
The service further reported that one person was killed and 49 were wounded in the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
Private energy provider DTEK reported earlier that electricity in parts of both Kyiv and the Kyiv region had been cut off, adding that work to restore electricity to households is still ongoing.
On the strikes, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said all necessary services are dealing with the consequences of the attacks, including more than 500 rescuers from the State Emergency Service.
Zelenskyy claimed Russia used about 170 drones and dozens of rockets of various types since Dec. 31, most of them aimed at civilian targets, he said.
"I thank all partners who help in strengthening our air shield. And it's obvious that it helps save hundreds of lives every day and every night that would have been taken by Russian terror if it weren't for Patriots (US missiles) and other defense systems," Zelenskyy said, adding that Russia "must feel the consequences of what it does."
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, claimed that the country's air defenses downed 35 drones and 72 different types of missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry also declared that it successfully carried out strikes on Ukraine's "military-industrial complex" in Kyiv, which it claimed produced missiles and drones, repaired weapons and military hardware, and stored missiles, ammunition, and aircraft supplied by the West.
On Ukraine’s Saturday attack on the city of Belgorod – 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ukraine’s border – which killed at least 25 people, Putin said on Monday that Russia will not let “a single crime of this kind” go unpunished.