Putin claims that Russia will ‘intensify’ his attacks on Ukraine

• Vladimir Putin announced an escalation in strikes on military targets.
• The attack resulted in 24 fatalities and over 100 injuries in Belgorod.
• Putin stated that Russia would continue to hit “military installations.”

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an escalation in strikes on military targets in Ukraine, following an unprecedented Ukrainian attack on the Russian city of Belgorod over the weekend.

The assault, which occurred on Saturday, resulted in 24 fatalities and over 100 injuries in Belgorod. This retaliation came in response to Moscow’s initiation of a large-scale attack on Ukrainian cities.

“We’re going to intensify the strikes. No crime against civilians will rest unpunished, that’s for certain,” Putin said on Monday during a visit to a military hospital.

He said Russia would continue to hit what he called “military installations”.

“We are doing that today and tomorrow we will continue doing it,” Putin announced, speaking almost two years into Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kyiv said Russia had hit targeted the country with a “record” number of drones on New Year’s Day.

“What happened in Belgorod is a terrorist act,” Putin told wounded Russian soldiers, sitting nearby him in hospital uniforms and sanitary masks. “There is no other way to call it.”

He accused Ukrainian forces of targeting “right in the city center, where people were walking around, before New Year’s Eve” and alleged they had “purposefully hit the civilian population”.

The Russian leader expressed his belief that the Russian side held the “strategic initiative” in the prolonged conflict in Ukraine.

“In any case, that is how I am being briefed,” he said.

Putin also claimed Moscow wanted to end the conflict — which has dragged on for almost two years — “as quickly as possible” but “only on our terms”, according to the source

He repeated his assertion that Ukraine is being used by the West to “settle its problems” with Russia.