A "terrorist act" is the way Russia has described any repercussions of the war it is waging in Ukraine that occur on its own territory. Vladimir Putin stuck with this position on Monday, January 1, referring to the strikes that had hit the Russian city of Belgorod two days earlier – the deadliest since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, with 25 civilians killed, including four children, and around a hundred injured.

In retaliation, massive new air strikes hit Ukraine on the morning of Tuesday, killing at least four people in Kyiv – where six districts of the capital were hit – but also in the border town of Kharkiv, where a woman succumbed to her injuries. More than 250,000 Ukrainians have also been left without electricity in and around Kyiv as part of the network has been damaged, according to the national operator Ukrenergo.

The previous day, the Russian president spoke from a military hospital in the Moscow region, surrounded by hospitalized soldiers. In his New Year's address to the nation the day before, he had not said a word about this town, which is located some 12 miles from the Ukrainian border, opposite Kharkiv. Putin had contented himself with referring to the conflict in general terms, praising the country's unity: "We have proven more than once that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never retreat, because there is no force that can divide us."

On Monday, Putin appeared to ask the soldiers gathered in front of him as to the appropriate reaction to the strikes, assuring them that he too was "boiling," before concluding, "We are striking with precision weapons the places where decisions are taken, the places where soldiers and mercenaries gather, other, similar centers, and military installations above all. We are doing that today and tomorrow we will continue doing it [...] Ukraine is not our enemy," Putin continued, promising however to "intensify" these strikes.

According to him, Ukrainian forces deliberately shelled "right in the city centre, where people were walking around, before New Year's Eve," using multiple rocket launcher systems, "weapons that strike indiscriminately" - which Russian troops have used on countless occasions since the start of the conflict against Ukrainian cities.

The images of the bombing of Belgorod indeed recall those that regularly come out of Ukraine, with damaged buildings, burning cars, corpses on the sidewalks, panicked civilians etc. On Saturday, December 30, 2023, a number of residents complained that the air raid shelters had remained closed and the sirens had sounded late, even though the city is one of the most exposed in Russia to Ukrainian bombardment. The death toll is the highest recorded in a single day on Russian territory.

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