The Russian strikes hit residential towers in Ukraine(Image: Will Stewart)

NATO fighters scrambled as Putin strikes Ukraine day before Trump peace talks

Russia used the full forces of its Tu-22M3 long range strategic bombers to inflict further misery on Ukraine and NATO was forced to scramble fighters for the second consecutive day

by · The Mirror

Vladimir Putin's forces bombarded Kyiv in savage new strikes on residential towers which have injured 11 people with NATO jets scrambled.

Russia used the full forces of its Tu-22M3 long range strategic bombers to inflict New Year cold and misery on Ukraine. The intensity of the blitzkrieg was so great that NATO was forced to ready its fighters for the second consecutive day amid Putin’s hellish seasonal strikes.

Two children were among those injured in the attack, which affected seven locations across the city of Kyiv said the head of Kyiv's City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko in a statement on Telegram.

A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency crews rushed to the scene to contain the flames. A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.

Flames and smoke seen coming from apartment blocks in Ukraine( Image: Will Stewart)

In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.

Russia unleashed deadly Kinzhal, Iskander and Kalibr missiles, as well as “herds” of Shahed drones with one third of Kyiv was without heating with temperatures of -1°C, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The intense strikes came as Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing for tomorrow’s high stakes peace plan meeting with Donald Trump in Florida.

The Russian attacks raise deep questions over whether Putin has any intention to sign up to an end to the war. Trump claimed Russia “wants” peace now but if so there were no signs of it overnight in the onslaught on Ukraine. A New Year greetings card to his henchmen from Putin promised “changes for the better” and "striving to share their warmth with our loved ones" just as he unleashed his latest terror strikes on Ukraine, plunging hundreds of thousands into cold.

Multiple areas of Kyiv were hit in the attacks( Image: Will Stewart)

The strikes - which included hypersonic missiles - triggered military aviation to operate in neighbouring Polish airspace. “Fighter aircraft have commenced operations, and ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have reached a state of readiness,” reported the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces.

This was “due to the activity of long-range Russian air forces carrying out strikes on Ukrainian territory”. The statement said: “These operations are preventative in nature and are aimed at securing and protecting airspace, particularly in areas adjacent to the threatened areas.”

A day earlier, NATO forces were forced to scramble F-16 fighters over Romania. Territory close to Romania - in Odesa region - was again hit today, this time with Kh-22 cruise missiles from the long-range missile carriers Tu-22M3 bombers.

In Kyiv, Klitschko said there were 11 casualties, with eight hospitalised, as the city was bathed in smog from burning after the attacks from hell. In Vyshgorod, Kyiv region, rescuers extracted a person from the ruins of a house destroyed in a Russian attack.

Putin's actions don't appear to show a desire for peace( Image: AP)

Ukrainian war commentator Denis Kazansky said: “Of course, Russians wouldn't be Russians if they didn't respond to all calls for a ceasefire, at least at New Year and Christmas, with more terrorist attacks.

“They again struck residential buildings and civilian targets in Kyiv and the surrounding region with drones and missiles. To leave people without heat in the freezing cold, and the most vulnerable citizens to freeze in their apartments. Under no circumstances should we forget that Russian soldiers are not human. They are the scum of the earth, a cancer.”

Killed in the night of Russian attacks was Denis Kapustin, 41, founder and commander of the pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC).

Strongly anti-Putin, he was a key target for Russia and had been twice sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. He “heroically died while carrying out a combat mission”, said his comrades. Kapustin is believed to have died in a FPV drone strike in Zaporizhzhia region.

Ukraine confirmed overnight strikes in Donetsk region on the forces of Russia’s 14th Spetsnaz Brigade in Berdianske, along with a logistics depot of the 228th Motor Rifle Regiment near Starobesheve.

A fuel depot was destroyed near occupied Volnovakha. Putin's New Year card read in full: "We always await these bright holidays with particular excitement and hope, striving to share their warmth with our loved ones, friends, and comrades. We sincerely believe that our kind dreams and aspirations will surely come true, and the coming year will bring changes for the better."