Russia launched a new barrage of missiles against Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least five people, while Ukrainian attacks in Belgorod, a Russian border region, left at least one dead.

According to the Ukrainian military, Russia fired 99 missiles, 72 of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses. Russia claimed that it shot down nine Ukrainian missiles over Belgorod.

The Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, and the eastern city of Kharkiv came less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin promised an intensification of his offensive following a Ukrainian attack of unprecedented force in Belgorod.

In kyiv, two people were killed and 49 injured, according to its mayor, Vitali Klitschko. Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said for his part that two people died on the outskirts of the capital.

In Kharkiv, a 91-year-old woman died and more than 52 were injured, including six children, announced the head of the city’s military administration, Oleg Sinegubov, who also regretted damage to buildings.

In Belgorod, a man died when a projectile exploded next to his vehicle, the governor of this Russian region bordering Ukraine, Viacheslav Gladkov, reported on Telegram, and five were injured in other incidents.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov accused Russia of deliberately bombing “critical infrastructure and residential areas”, but Moscow said it had only attacked military installations.

After the new wave of missiles, kyiv urged its Western allies to provide it with more weapons.

The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to “intensify” attacks in Ukraine in retaliation for the unprecedented force bombing of the Russian city of Belgorod on Saturday, which left 25 dead and 109 wounded.

Early in the morning, air raid sirens rang out in kyiv. Shortly after, ten powerful explosions were heard that shook buildings in the city center, according to AFP journalists.

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry denounced “massive bombings” on Telegram and said that “residential buildings, warehouses and critical infrastructure” had been hit.

“It’s a residential building! They hit a residential building!” denounced Violetta Soloviova, a 56-year-old resident of kyiv.

His mother, Galina Soloviova, 79, suffered a head injury and was left homeless. “It’s a real horror to be left with nothing. And we don’t know anything about the neighbors. They are people we know. How are they?” she asked with her head bandaged.

More than 250,000 people were left without electricity in the morning in kyiv, at a time when temperatures hovered around three degrees Celsius, but service was quickly restored, municipal authorities said.

Faced with this escalation, Poland, Ukraine’s neighbor, took off four of its F-16 fighters in the direction of the east of the country to “guarantee the security” of its airspace.

Poland, a member of NATO and the European Union, is a strong ally of Ukraine.

“Give weapons to Ukraine!” implored the Secretary General of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, Oleksiï Danilov, on Telegram. kyiv has struggled in recent weeks to obtain more military aid from its Western allies.

“Today, the Ukrainian air force shot down 10 of the 10 Russian ‘Kinzhal’ aeroballistic missiles (…) with the help of the Patriot AD system,” Ukrainian army commander-in-chief Valeri Zaluzhni said on social media.

“It is urgent and crucial to support Ukraine now, to stop Putin,” said Bridget Brink, US ambassador to Ukraine, on the social network X.

Nearly two years after the start of its invasion, Russia appears to be stepping up its air strikes again.

Last Friday, a series of missile attacks launched by Russia against Ukraine already caused the death of around 40 people. The next day 25 people were killed in a Ukrainian bombing of the Russian city of Belgorod, near the border.