UPDATE - 9 killed, 70 injured in Russian airstrikes on Ukraine

CHANGES HEADLINE AND LEDE; UPDATES WITH STATEMENT ON LATEST DEATH TOLL FROM RUSSIAN AIRSTRIKES

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – At least nine people were killed and 70 others injured on Tuesday in Russian airstrikes on various regions of Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, officials said.

“Rescue operations continue after another Russian attack against our cities and people - deliberate terror against ordinary residential buildings in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Pavlograd. Unfortunately, there are casualties and deaths,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

At the time of his statement, Zelenskyy said that 22 people were known to be injured due to missile strikes in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said that five people were killed and 51 people were injured, including four children, in the country’s eastern Kharkiv region. He further said that 27 people were rescued from the rubble.

In later statements, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said that the number of those killed in the region rose to eight.

Ukraine’s president also said that one person was killed in the city of Pavlohrad in the country’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

“My condolences to all relatives and friends. Our heroic rescuers, those who are always the first to arrive at the sites of enemy shelling, despite all the difficulties, continue their very important work for the sake of saving people,” Zelenskyy added.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have exchanged accusations over airstrikes against each other that intensified since late December when at least 40 people were killed in various regions of Ukraine in a massive air attack, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as the "heaviest attack" since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war.

On Jan. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would not let “a single crime of this kind” go unpunished following a raid on the Russian city of Belgorod, which killed 25 people and wounded many others.