President Vladimir Putin said Monday that Moscow will intensify strikes on military targets in Ukraine after an unprecedented attack over the weekend on the Russian city of Belgorod that killed 24 people and left over 100 wounded on Saturday.
"We're going to intensify the strikes, no crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that's for certain," Putin said during a visit to a military hospital, adding they would target "military installations".
Putin’s comments came as Russia ramped up air strikes on Ukraine.
Five more bodies have been found under rubble after massive Russian air strikes on Kyiv three days ago, city authorities said on Monday, bringing the death toll in the Ukrainian capital from that attack to 28.
Ukraine had previously declared Monday a day of mourning for those killed in Friday's missile strikes, the deadliest single attack on Ukraine's capital of the nearly two-year-long war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to wreak "wrath" against Russian forces in 2024, hours before Ukraine saw attacks on the first day of the year.
Russia and Ukraine have seen an escalation in strikes in recent days, including an unprecedented assault on the Russian city of Belgorod that killed 24 people on Saturday.
The attack came a day after Moscow launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities, killing 39 people in one of the biggest aerial attacks since the war began.
January 1 is a day of mourning in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, where 19 people had been killed, city officials said.
Just hours after midnight on New Year's Day, the Russian-installed head of the occupied Donetsk region said four people had been killed and 13 wounded in "massive shelling" from rockets on its main city.
In Ukraine's southern Odesa region, governor Oleg Kiper said one person died in a Russian drone attack, and three others were wounded.
And in western Ukraine's Lviv region, air defence systems shot down Russian drones in Monday's early hours, according to governor Maksym Kozytskyi.
Zelensky's televised New Year's address featured clips of Ukrainian artillery and fighter jets.
"Next year, the enemy will feel the wrath of domestic production," Zelensky said.
Ukraine will have at least "a million" additional drones in its arsenal next year, Zelensky added, as well as F-16 fighter jets delivered by its Western partners.
"Our pilots are already mastering F-16 jets, and we will definitely see them in our skies," he said.
Despite billions of dollars worth of Western weapons, Ukraine struggled to make a major breakthrough in its 2023 counteroffensive against invading Russian forces.
Russian forces have recently increased pressure along the front lines, capturing the eastern town of Marinka earlier in December and pushing for control of Kupiansk in the northeast.
Ukraine is urging Western allies to maintain military support.
Britain announced it would send hundreds more air-defence missiles to Kyiv, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared: "We must continue to stand with Ukraine – for as long as it takes."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
