Russia launches fresh drone strikes on Ukraine after promising retaliation for Belgorod attack

Russia has launched a fresh drone assault on Ukraine after promising that strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod “would not go unpunished”

Russia launched a fresh drone assault on Ukraine on Saturday night, after promising that strikes on the Russian border city of Belgorod earlier in the day “would not go unpunished”.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday that it had shot down 21 of 49 drones launched by Russian forces overnight.

Twenty-eight people were wounded in an attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday. A central hotel, apartment buildings, kindergarten, shops and administrative buildings sustained damage, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

Russia's Defence Ministry said that it had hit “decision-making centres and military facilities” in Kharkiv, reporting that its strike on the Kharkiv Palace Hotel had “destroyed representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate and Ukrainian Armed Forces" involved in the “terrorist attack” in Belgorod.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that a British journalist was among the wounded, while public German broadcaster ZDF said Sunday that one of its television crews had been in the hotel. A Ukrainian translator was hit by debris and seriously wounded, with one of the team’s security guards also sustaining injuries, ZDF said in a statement.

“This is another attack by Russia on the free press,” said ZDF editor-in-chief Bettina Schausten.

In the Kyiv region that surrounds the capital, a Russian drone attack caused a fire to break out at a critical infrastructure facility, local officials said. They did not identify the facility further.