Ukraine today continued to count its dead after the fierce attacks carried out the previous day by Russia in its cities, including the capital Kyiv, killing at least thirty people and injuring dozens, according to authorities.

The wave of strikes, one of the most severe since the beginning of the war that is almost two years old, targeted apartment buildings, a maternity hospital, a shopping center, but also industrial and military infrastructure.

“This is the most massive missile attack” with the exception of the first days of the war, Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat told AFP.

At least 39 dead and 160 injured

The Russian strikes, which took place yesterday, Friday and were among the heaviest since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, have killed at least 39 people, according to a new tally announced today by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Right now, we unfortunately count 39 dead,” Zelensky wrote on social media, expressing his “condolences” to the victims’ relatives.

On the Russian side, authorities announced today that strikes by the Kiev army killed four people, three of them children, and injured others in two Russian regions bordering Ukraine.

Four dead, including two children in Belgorod

“Two children”, whose age was not specified, were killed in the center of the city of Belgorod, local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced via the Telegram app, adding that there were also wounded in the attack.

Earlier he had announced that a nighttime attack on an apartment building had claimed the life of a man and injured four people.

The city’s water system was also damaged, Gladkoff had argued.

In Bryansk Oblast, which also borders Ukraine, the villages of Kister and Borshevo were shelled, killing “a child born in 2014,” according to governor Alexander Bogomaz.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its anti-aircraft defense systems destroyed 13 missiles over this region.

The ministry also announced that a total of 32 Ukrainian drones were neutralized in the Bryansk, Kursk and Orel sectors, north of the Ukrainian border, as well as in Moscow.

Belgorod is located 80 kilometers north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which was heavily hit by Russian forces yesterday, Friday morning, according to Ukrainian authorities.