Russian missiles destroy a hotel in Kharkiv

Two missiles from Russia hit a hotel in Ukraine’s second biggest city, Kharkiv, and 11 people got hurt, according to the governor of Kharkiv.

Pictures from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed the hotel very damaged and firefighters there to help.

Governor Oleh Synehubov said that Turkish journalists were also among the injured. At around 10:30 PM, two S-300 missiles hit the target.

Russia has increased bombing in Ukrainian cities in the last two weeks.

Ukrainian leaders say many innocent people have been killed in the attacks using drones and missiles.

Kharkiv, a city close to Russia, has been badly damaged by Russian airstrikes since President Vladimir Putin started a big attack on Ukraine in February 2022.

In the most recent attack, nine people got hurt and had to go to the hospital. One of them, a 35-year-old man, was in critical condition, the governor said on the Telegram messaging service.

The mayor of the city, Ihor Terekhov, said that there were no soldiers in the hotel, only 30 regular people, according to Ukraine’s Unian news agency. It’s in the middle of the city in Kyiv. He said that many other houses and cars close by were also broken.

The city of Belgorod in Russia was attacked by missiles and drones from Ukraine on 30 December. Russian officials say 25 civilians were killed.

Russia has started sending many children from Belgorod to holiday camps that are farther away from Ukraine for three weeks. A camp in Voronejson region got 93 new people on Wednesday. Later, 280 more people arrived in Kaluga region. State TV said that teachers would go there too.

President Zelensky visited Lithuania and asked Western friends to give more weapons for air defense. The Baltic country strongly supports Ukraine in helping them resist Russian forces.

We need more air defence systems. The battle against drones. I am glad that we have deals with Lithuania and many other partners,” he said in Vilnius. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia used to be part of the Soviet Union, but now they are in the NATO alliance.

Lithuania gives the most military aid to Ukraine compared to other countries based on their GDP, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany. The US gives the most help to Ukraine for their defense.

Mr Zelensky, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine, said that Vladimir Putin will continue to cause trouble until he has ruined Ukraine.

He wants to keep us very busy. Sometimes when our allies hesitate to help Ukraine with money and military support, it makes Russia feel more confident and strong.

He said the Russian leader will not stop the war until we all stop him together and cautioned that the Baltic states and Moldova could be targets next.

Recently, the leader of Ukraine has been having serious discussions with Western allies to make sure they keep getting important weapons. Kyiv’s attack last year didn’t go very well, and some people in the West are wondering if Kyiv’s plan is good, which makes them worried about the war’s cost.

Now that Russia is spending a lot more money on its military, Nato countries are having a hard time making enough artillery shells and other heavy weapons.

The European Union wants to give Ukraine €50 billion in aid, but Hungary is stopping it. And the US Congress can’t agree on giving more military aid to Ukraine.

After talking to the Ukrainian government on a video call, Nato said it would give Ukraine a lot of money to help them this year.

“Nato’s leader, Jens Stoltenberg, said that Nato is very upset about Russia attacking Ukrainian people with missiles and drones, using weapons from North Korea and Iran. “