Russia pounds Kharkiv with missiles and drones, Ukraine says

Russia pounded the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missiles and drones in the hours leading into New Year's Eve, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out a deadly air assault just across the border on nearby Belgorod.

In the first wave of Russia's attacks, at least six missiles hit Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Sunday, injuring at least 28 people and hitting residential buildings, hotels and medical facilities.

Russia's Defence Ministry said it had attacked "decision-making centres" and military facilities in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv overnight in retaliation for Ukraine's bombardment of the Russian city of Belgorod.

Earlier, Ukrainian officials said that two boys aged 14 and 16 and a security adviser for a team of German journalists were among those injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.

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Closer to midnight, as part of a wider bombardment of Ukraine that also targeted Kyiv, several waves of Russian drones hit residential buildings in Kharkiv's centre, causing fires, the city's mayor said.

"On the eve of the New Year, the Russians want to intimidate our city, but we are not scared — we are unbreakable and invincible!" Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Images from Kharkiv showed badly damaged buildings, including a hotel with many windows blown out.

Ukraine's air force said the military had shot down 21 out of 49 drones launched overnight by Russia. Most were aimed at the front line and parts of the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, it said.

In a separate attack, three people were killed when Russian forces shelled a village in the Kharkiv region near the front line, Syniehubov said.

US President Joe Biden, asked if he'll speak to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky after Russia's latest attacks in Ukraine, said: "I speak to him regularly."